


Wizards: The Ones Who Stayed

by AkozuHeiwa



Series: The Ones Who Stayed 'Verse [1]
Category: Tales of Arcadia (Cartoons)
Genre: AU after 3Below, Action/Adventure, Akiridion Lore, Angst, Arthurian Lore, Fluff, Found Family, Friendship, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, I poured so much love into this so i hope you like it, Knights - Freeform, POV Alternating, Post 3Below, Whump, Wizard Steve Palchuk, everything in between, not completely accurate to it but still it's definitely there, so much worldbuiding, we don't have Wizards yet so I'm going to write it, wizard lore
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-18
Updated: 2019-11-13
Packaged: 2020-12-23 18:03:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 27
Words: 137,506
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21085550
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AkozuHeiwa/pseuds/AkozuHeiwa
Summary: After the world isn't destroyed by Morando, Akiridion turned literal god, Toby, Krel, and Steve think they have the rest of the summer easy. Except a cat is warning of the end of the world again and things are getting weird, so maybe the rest of the summer isn't going to be so easy, after all. Now faced with murderous Knights, exciting new magic, and a mysterious evil wizard bringing yet another apocalypse to their vacation, it's up to Earth's remaining Trollhunter, Akiridion, and Creepslayer to save the day.





	1. Catastrophe in the Making

**Author's Note:**

> Hello and welcome!!! At long last, wiz-fic has arrived! It feels like yesterday I was trying to get people to convince me not to write this fice. I hope all of you enjoy the product of hours of writing and love and crying that I poured into this. Super special thanks to my amazing friends and beta-readers, @brising, @lizzylucky, and @aeinridi from Tumblr. They're absolutely klebtastic and they know how much pain I'm about to put you guys through. And always feel free to come yell at me on Tumblr (@akozuheiwa)! With real Wizards coming up I will always be stuck in ToA mode.
> 
> Without further ado, my friends, enjoy the fic!!

Okay. Recap. They saved the world for the second time since the beginning of summer break, this time against an extra-terrestrial _god _on a power trip. Most of their new Akiridion friends – actually, all of them except for Krel – left for Akiridion-5 and took Eli with them, and on the way home from saying goodbye, they meet a talking cat who tells them they have to save the world again.

Yeah, okay, Toby can see why Steve is screaming.

The cat peeks back around the corner it’d disappeared beyond. If cats could raise their eyebrows, he’d definitely be doing just that. Actually, he does kind of have eyebrows, and he is kind of raising one of them. He sighs and sits and adjusts his glasses.

“Are you quite done?” the cat asks.

“I hate you,” says Steve.

“Well, that feels rather pre-emptive and uncalled for.”

“Yeah, yeah, we’re coming,” says Toby as Steve pulls his phone out of his pocket. “What are you doing?”

“Calling Krel!” He puts the phone to his ear. Then, after Krel has apparently picked up, he yells, “There’s more weird stuff happening!”

Toby takes the phone from his hysterical friend. “Hey, Krel.”

“Toby? What’s going on? Is Steve okay?”

Toby considers it. “Probably not. Hey, can you meet us?”

“Where are you going?”

“I dunno, track our phones, man! Aren’t you some sort of tech genius or something?”

“I _am_ a tech genius, not _or_ _something_.”

“Whatever! Just find us. There’s a talking cat.”

“There’s a _what_!?”

Toby hangs up and gives Steve his phone back. The cat clears his throat, or at least that’s what it sounds like. Can cats clear their throats? Toby supposes they can, kinda like getting rid of a hairball.

“If you’re ready,” he says.

Steve groans. “Can’t you find a different group of people to help you save the world, wizard-cat?”

“No.”

“Why _not_?”

“Steve, stop whining like a two-year-old,” says Toby, even though he agrees. Haven’t they saved the world enough? First the Eternal Night, then Morando, now whatever this is? There’s got to be more qualified people than teenagers.

“You stop whining!” Steve shoots back. It doesn’t make sense, but neither does half the stuff Steve says when he’s angry, so there’s that.

The cat is done waiting for them, obviously, because he starts walking again. The way he walks on two legs creeps Toby out. If one of Nana’s cats had ever done that, he thinks he would’ve had a heart attack.

Aaarrrgghh!!!, at least, doesn’t seem too bothered by this turn of events. He offers Steve a pat on the back as they follow the cat. At least one of them is totally chill with a talking cat wearing glasses. Toby’s not sure how he feels and Steve looks on the verge of a mental breakdown.

The cat eventually stops in front of that weird magic store downtown. That’s about as cliché as it gets, the wizard owns a magic store. Toby’s never been, of course, but Claire has and she says it’s the coolest store in Arcadia.

Seconds after they arrive, Krel glides up on his hoverboard. He’s in human form, and it’s windy out, so his hair has gone everywhere and he has to take a moment to fix it after he jumps off the board.

Steve points at the cat with a wide-eyed, my-entire-life-is-a-lie kind of expression. The poor guy looks near tears.

“He’s wearing glasses,” Steve whimpers. “He’s a cat with bad eyesight.”

“I thought the weird part was that he talked?” says Krel.

“Any weirder than an extra-terrestrial teenager and a troll?” the cat points out. Krel opens his mouth to respond to this, but he must not be able to find a good answer because he scowls and crosses his arms. “Exactly. Now, if you will follow me inside. We have a lot to discuss.”

“Does this have to do with the world as we know it ending?” Toby asks.

Krel glances at him with alarmed wide eyes. “Oh, kleb. Not _again_.”

“This has everything to do with that,” says the cat. “Come.”

They follow the cat into the magic store. It’s late, so the store is closed and no one is in the front. Toby reaches to touch one of the knick-knacks on the counter, but without looking back, the cat says, “Ah, no touching, please and thank you.”

“How did he know?” Toby whispers as he jerks his hand back. Could wizard cats see _everything_? Toby thought he had bad eyesight.

“I am well accustomed to teenagers,” says the cat.

“He’s got you there,” says Krel, as if he wasn’t just about to grab something himself.

The cat stops in the middle of the room and rolls back the rug there. Okay. A secret hatch is definitely exciting. Toby can almost overlook the whole world ending thing just for that. The cat pulls it open and starts down the stairs into the dimly lit downstairs.

“Come along,” says the cat.

“Guess we’re going into the creepy secret room then,” says Krel.

Aaarrrgghh!!! frowns at the entrance and shifts. “Too small.”

“Sorry, Wingman,” says Toby, patting him on the arm. “You’ll have to stay here.”

Aaarrrgghh!!! rumbles disappointedly and sits. The items in the shop rattle with his weight. Toby follows Krel and Steve down the stairs. The room – a library by the looks of it – is dimly lit. It has just the right sort of ambience for a magical library.

There’s a person sitting at a desk reading. It takes Toby a moment to realise he’s stirring his drink by spinning a finger several inches away from the spoon in the mug, and another to realise he actually recognises the guy.

“Douxie?” he says. Douxie’s head shoots up. Toby hopes he got the right name. “From Battle of the Bands, right?”

“Hey! Toby, Steve, and Krel, right?” says Douxie brightly. Then his brow furrows. “What are you doing here?”

“Uh…”

“I brought them,” says the cat primly. Douxie stares at him, still absently stirring his drink. The cat sighs. “We discussed this. The end of the world?”

“Oh! Yes,” says Douxie. “Thank you, Archie. Somehow, I’m not surprised. You three always end up involved in the end of the world.”

“Uh, we do?” asks Krel. He laughs uneasily. “I’ve only been here a few months.”

“And in that time we’re reaching our third end of the world.” Douxie closes his book and stands. He makes a large gesture with his hand to several armchairs. ”Have a seat. We’ve got a lot to discuss.”

Steve practically collapses into a chair. Toby and Krel sit a little more calmly, but Toby also doesn’t blame Steve. It would have been nice to have a break.

“I met your sister, you know,” Douxie says to Krel, sitting in another armchair. The cat – Archie? – leaps up and perches on his leg. “Guess I was right about those travel lines, eh?”

Krel’s brow furrows. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

Douxie shrugs. Steve leans forward, gripping the arms of the chair so tight his knuckles turn white. “Okay, I’m freaking out. Your cat has glasses and the world is ending and now you’re talking about Aja for some reason and _I am so confused_.”

“Right,” says Douxie. He frowns and takes a deep breath. “Well, I’m not entirely sure what to tell you, to be honest. As you must have realised by now, I’m no ordinary human. I’m what’s known as a wizard, which means I can do magic.”

“You did not tell me Earth had _magic_!” Krel hisses to Toby.

“Shh!” Toby hisses back.

“I happen to be fairly gifted in prophecy and future-sight.” Douxie waves a hand in front of him. Toby scrambles back when the candles flicker and the oranges of the flames form into a glowing representation of the Eternal Night, right in the middle of the library.

“Lively,” Krel mumbles, reaching out to run a hand through the light. It sounds weird to hear from him instead of Aja.

“Trust me when I say the Eternal Night was no surprise to me,” Douxie says. “But there’s something even worse afoot.”

“Putting aside the fact you just said ‘afoot’ unironically,” says Toby, “what do you mean something _worse_? Like, Morando bad?”

“Worse still,” says Douxie. “I think. I don’t know any details about that one.”

“He was a murderous alien-turned-god, how much worse can it get!?” Steve exclaims.

“Akiridion-turned-god,” Krel corrects.

“I mean, you guys defeated him pretty easily.” Douxie waves his hand again, completely ignoring the put-out expression that filters over Krel’s face, and the image shifts – this time, it shows Arcadia in ruins. Toby shudders. Krel reaches out to put a hand on his shoulder, but his eyes are focused on the illusion of destruction and his grip is too tight. Toby wonders what he really saw in the Deep, and if it looked anything like this.

“Is that what you saw?” Steve’s voice breaks. Toby can recognise the tone of panic he’s trying to mask.

“Please tell me that isn’t what you saw,” Toby says.

The illusion vanishes. For a moment, they are plunged into darkness. Then the candles flicker back on. Douxie shakes his head. “Yes and no. Not… exactly, I should say. The problem with future-sight is that it’s never very clear. _Something_ is coming. I don’t know what, and I don’t know when, but I know it is. And soon.”

“Great,” says Steve. “That helps us so much.”

“Along with us, the wizards, you are Arcadia’s last line of defence,” says Douxie.

“Well, that’s reassuring,” Krel says. He still looks troubled by the illusion from before. “We’re supposed to stop that?”

“If this is, like, the end of the world, for real, why is it starting in Arcadia?” Steve demands. “Like, I get that the Eternal Night was here because of Trollmarket, and I get that Morando was here because of Aja and Krel and the core thingy, but shouldn’t this start somewhere else? Like – like New York!”

“This isn’t a movie, dude,” says Toby.

“Yeah, ‘cause if it was, we could have a normal summer here in the _totally unremarkable town of Arcadia_!”

“I bet Aja doesn’t have to deal with this on Akiridion-5,” grumbles Krel.

“Chins up!” says Douxie. “I’m sure if we work together we’ll be able to stop the end of the world, no problem.”

“That’s a lot of optimism coming from the guy who just showed us an illusion of us losing,” Toby mutters.

“Incentive!”

“Last time someone tried to give me incentive, I got thrown off a cliff,” Toby says.

“Me too,” says Krel. “I do not like this incentive.”

“Unfortunately for you, you don’t have much of a choice,” says Archie. “The world is ending, whether you like it or not. You can choose to sit around and wait for it to end, or you can join us in preventing it.”

Toby groans. “Fine. I’ll call Jim. Maybe – ugh – Merlin can help us.”

Douxie and Archie exchange wary looks.

“Maybe not,” says Douxie. “I don’t fully trust this… Merlin. He’s old. He’s a wild card. And I saw what he did to Jim.”

Toby flinches. Merlin’s treatment of Jim will always sour his opinion of the old man, but Toby thinks he’d be willing to help save the world. After all, he lives in it too. Then he thinks back, to the Eternal Night, when all Merlin cared about was getting his magic back.

“Yeah,” he finally agrees. “We’ll keep Merlin out of it.”

“It’s late,” says Douxie. “You three should head home and get some sleep. And your troll friend – I’m assuming that was the thud I heard upstairs.”

“Sleep,” scoffs Steve. “As if we can sleep after finding out the world’s going to end. Again! Why does this keep happening!?”

“With any luck this’ll be the last,” Douxie offers. “Except, you know. Climate change. And if that doesn’t do us in, I’m sure something else will come along.”

“Not _helping_,” Steve bites out.

“Alright, let’s go before Steve attacks the wizard,” says Toby. He grabs Steve by the arm and starts guiding him out as Steve starts muttering, “All I wanted to do this summer is hang out with my friends and girlfriend by the pool. Maybe play some flag football. Instead, I get three apocalypses! _Three_!”

“Oh, boy,” mumbles Krel. He waves awkwardly as they leave. “Uh, see you later… wizard and talking cat.”

Aaarrrgghh!!! follows them out of the shop. He nods as subtly as Aaarrrgghh!!! can nod towards Steve. “He okay?”

“He’ll be fine, big guy,” says Toby.

“I HATE THIS SUMMER!”

An unknown end of the world approaching doesn’t make Toby feel very comfortable walking around town at night, even if he’s not _that_ worried when Aaarrrgghh!!! is here.

“Toby,” says Krel hesitantly. “What did this… Merlin do to Jim? Does it have something to do with why he was blue?”

Toby winces. “You saw him, too, then.”

Krel nods. Steve looks visibly interested too – Toby’s pretty sure he and Eli never got the full story of Troll Jim, actually. He sighs.

“Basically, Merlin told him he wasn’t good enough, which is stupid because Jim was awesome as he was.” He fiddles with his war-hammer for a moment before continuing. “Krel, you remember when you helped us capture lightning?”

“Of course,” says Krel. “I thought that was strange.”

“Yeah, well, that was one of the ingredients for some potion Merlin wanted to make,” says Toby. “He basically forced Jim to drink it, and it turned him into a troll, which means Jim can’t go into the sun or go to school or enjoy normal human food – and I dunno, maybe Jim couldn’t have survived as a human, but… it just felt really cheap to me. Plus, Merlin was a jerk who only _really _cared about getting his magic back if you ask me. He was missing for most of the fight!”

“Maybe a good call on not asking him for help,” says Steve.

Krel looks horrified. “We helped you get the lightning – if we hadn’t–”

“I’m going to stop you right there, man,” says Toby. “No part of it is your fault, okay? Merlin was sneaky and manipulative and made Jim feel like he had no other choice. That has nothing to do with you – or even me.”

Krel nods. Toby thinks he still looks guilty, but, then again, _Toby_ still feels guilty. Maybe if he’d stayed – if he’d been there, when Merlin convinced Jim, however Merlin convinced Jim – maybe Jim wouldn’t have felt so alone to make the choice. There’s nothing Toby can do now, though.

Toby isn’t paying attention when they reach his house, so Aaarrrgghh!!! has to stop him from just walking past it.

“Home,” rumbles Aaarrrgghh!!!.

“Yep, this is our stop,” says Toby. “I’ll see you guys tomorrow.”

“Come by my place,” says Krel, even though all four of them know he’d rather be anywhere else. Toby had tried inviting Krel to live with him – and so had Steve, for that matter – but Krel didn’t want to leave the Blanks alone after they stayed for him. “We can see if there’s any information in… what’s left of Mother’s databases. Plus, I should be able to connect to local internet and intergalactic databases from there.”

“Bright and early,” agrees Toby.

He and Aaarrrgghh!!! try to be quiet as they walk in. Nana is probably already asleep, unless she’s calling Varvatos. There’s something really weird about his grandmother dating at all, let alone dating an extra-terrestrial living nearly fifty thousand light-years away.

He settles in his bed. Aaarrrgghh!!! sits on the floor. “You okay?”

“Yeah, man,” he says. “Just – that was a lot. How much did you hear?”

“All of it,” Aaarrrgghh!!! says.

“I don’t know how we’re supposed to prepare for a threat we know nothing about.” Toby manages a weak laugh. Chompsky peers out of his dollhouse worriedly. “Without Jimbo… you know I’m not the smart one, Aaarrrgghh!!!.”

“Plenty smart,” says Aaarrrgghh!!!. “No Jim against Morando, either.”

Toby inclines his head and tries to smile. “Yeah. Yeah, I guess not.”

“Don’t worry,” says Aaarrrgghh!!!. “Wingman got this.”

“We got this,” Toby corrects. “Hey, we can be our own little dream team! You and me and Krel and – Steve, I guess. He’s really changed, you know?”

“Mmm,” agrees Aaarrrgghh!!!.

“Guess we should get some sleep then,” says Toby. “I get the feeling we have a long day ahead of us.”

He pulls the covers up and lays down, turning his back to Aaarrrgghh!!! to hide his frown. He wishes they had more time to prepare. He doesn’t feel ready for another end of the world, so soon after the last one. And now he’s part of the last line of defence?

He hopes they’ll be enough.

The nice thing about hanging out at Krel’s place early in the morning is that Lucy Blank is always happy to make pancakes. Whether or not they stick to the ceiling or end up on a plate is irrelevant.

The house decoy is still a bit of a wreck from the fight with Morando and Kubritz. Toby knows Krel and the other Akiridions didn’t bother to clean up before the others left, since Krel’s decision to stay was kind of last minute. He can tell Krel and the Blanks tried to clean up a bit, maybe before Steve called Krel, maybe after their talk with Douxie, but Toby still winces to look around and see the destruction.

“Lucy has discovered something called ‘chips of chocolate’,” says Krel, proudly showing his pancakes off. “They make the pancakes even better!”

“Why are we here so early?” Steve asks through a yawn. He holds up his plate to catch a pancake. The gesture is so second-nature that, paired with his clear sleep-deprivation, it makes it obvious Steve has been over for breakfast often.

“If you didn’t sleep enough, that’s on you,” says Krel, crossing his lower set of arms in order to look disapproving but still be able to eat his pancakes with the upper pair.

“Like you’ve ever, once, in the entire time I’ve known you, gotten enough sleep,” scoffs Steve.

“And that is on me.” To punctuate this, Krel takes a large bite of his pancake and lights up. “The chips of chocolate were a good choice, Lucy!”

“Great!” she chirps. “I’ll bookmark the recipe!”

Then she laughs her creepy Lucy-laugh. Toby loves the Blanks, don’t get him wrong, but, man, can they be really freaky.

“When you guys finish up, we can head into the ship and start researching,” says Krel.

“Why do I feel like this is just going to stress me out more?” mutters Steve.

Krel won’t let them bring food into the ship right now – apparently, there’s too many exposed and easily breakable parts – so they have to scarf down their pancakes before heading down. Even Toby’s saddened by the destruction he sees around the Mothership. He may not have had the emotional connection that Krel did, but Mother seemed pretty darn cool.

“I haven’t had time to start fixing things up,” says Krel, tone apologetic as they step over the remains of an OMEN robot. “We did a little, but I haven’t had time since Aja left. Doesn’t look like I’ll have much time for a while.”

“Offer’s still open if you want to move in with me and Aaarrrgghh!!!,” says Toby.

“Or me,” says Steve. “Coach asked me this morning if I was sure you were okay all by yourself.”

“Thanks, but I am not all by myself,” says Krel. “I have the Blanks.”

“Right,” says Toby slowly. “Like the Blanks are the best emotional support a teenager could need. Gotcha.”

Krel shoves him good-naturedly. “They’re not so bad. Just a bit… unique, that’s all.”

Krel pulls up the database. The files look weirdly corrupted, and by Krel’s wince it must be because of Morando’s attack.

“Ay-yi-yi,” he mutters. “Well, we’re not going to find anything here.”

“It’s an Earth threat, probably, right?” says Steve.

Krel pulls up the internet instead and flexes all four arms. “Earth resources it is then. Any ideas where to start?”

“Try searching for the end of the world,” says Toby.

Krel does so. It’s really interesting to watch Akiridion letters translate to English in the search box. Toby wonders in the back of his mind how Aja and Krel know English, anyway. As far as Toby knows, they don’t have any translators, unless those are built into their suits or, like, them. Maybe they have some sort of microchip. Toby isn’t sure if that would be cool or creepy, but he’s leaning towards cool.

“This is all nonsense!” Krel exclaims. “Half of this is talking about religion and half of it is talking about the asteroid _we_ diverted! Hey! This one says the US government made the laser. _I _made the laser! _Me_!”

“Would you like to tell the world you’re an Akiridion?” says Steve dryly. “I hate to break it to you, but there are more Colonel Kubritzes than there are Lieutenant Costas. They’ll experiment on you or something.”

Krel makes a face. “That would be bad. Well, your human internet is not helping. Yeesh, you people will believe every end of the world threat there is.”

“And here we are, listening to a wizard and a talking cat,” Toby points out.

Krel pauses. “Thanks. That makes us sound crazy, too.”

“I’m beginning to wonder,” mutters Steve.

“Well, I guess we should start searching the intergalactic databases, then,” says Krel. All twenty of his fingers fly at the keyboard until what must be several hundred files pop up. Krel’s eyebrows raise. “This could take a while.”

By the time they break for lunch, they haven’t found anything remotely useful. They find a lot on other planets that have been destroyed, along with plenty of conspiracy theories. Searching for Earth brings up a bunch of stuff about Aja and Krel, because apparently that’s travelled the intergalactic grapevine. They even find the siblings’ bounties. Krel is outraged, both by the fact that Aja’s bounty is still higher than his and by his picture, which he says gets his worst side. Toby almost regrets teaching him that.

Lucy offers to make them lunch, but they decide instead to go out to eat. Krel suggests they find Stuart’s taco truck, partially because they all like tacos, partially because Stuart’s been known to have really weird information.

“Maybe the information is hidden somehow,” says Steve. “Maybe someone doesn’t want us finding it.”

“It’d be nice to know if this apocalypse is going to be caused _by_ someone,” says Toby. “What if it’s just like… Yellowstone erupts!”

“Yellow… stones?” Krel repeats.

“Yeah, man, it’s a super-volcano!” Toby exclaims. “Maybe it’s going to erupt, and then there’ll be a bunch of earthquakes, and lava, and hot ash, and a thousand-year winter or something!”

Steve laughs unsurely. “Like that’s likely.”

“Actually it’s overdue.”

“Not helping, Domzalski!”

“Well, we couldn’t stop that,” says Krel. “Douxie thinks we can stop whatever this is, so it can’t be a natural disaster.”

“Good point,” agrees Toby. “So it must be because of a person, that would make it easier to stop.”

“No one said it was going to be easy,” Krel adds.

“I’m trying to be optimistic!”

“How can you be optimistic about the end of the world?” Steve exclaims. “There’s no bright side to that!”

“If the world ends, then we won’t have to deal with the climate change Douxie was talking about,” says Krel. “Also, we won’t have to worry about the S-A-Ts that Señor Uhl mentioned before we let out for the summer.”

Toby groans. “We want reasons to save the world, Krel, not reasons to let it get destroyed.”

Krel shrugs. “Just saying, you can be optimistic.”

Toby is about to respond, but he’s interrupted by the sound of someone in armour landing in front of them – now, that’s a weird thing to pick up by sound, but Toby has heard Jim make his superhero landings in armour enough times to recognise it. Unfortunately, the person is not Jim. Instead, it’s a stranger in greenish-grey armour. Toby can’t tell their gender, especially with their helmet on, but whoever they are, they don’t look very friendly.

“Uh, hi,” he squeaks.

The scary person in armour doesn’t respond with words. Instead, they respond by attacking. Toby is forced to dive one way and Steve and Krel the other as the person – knight – comes at them.

“Kleb!” Krel exclaims. He activates his serrator. Toby gets out his war-hammer.

“I don’t have a weapon!” cries Steve.

“Why don’t you have a weapon?” Toby shoots back. “We just got told the world was about to end, why weren’t you expecting something like this?”

“I’m sorry, but I don’t have any travel-size weapons!”

“Then stay behind me,” Krel snaps.

“No offence, Krel, but don’t you think the better plan is to give me the serrator, and then _you_ stay behind _me_?”

“Hey!”

Toby catches the knight’s sword with his hammer and grunts with the struggle. “Guys! Fight the scary knight now, argue later!”

Steve mutters something Toby doesn’t catch, then gives what he must think is a battle-cry and runs at the knight. He manages to tackle them away from Toby. Krel runs up to shield him from the sword immediately afterwards.

“Rule number three!” Toby yells.

“Play with my phone?” Krel asks in confusion.

“No! Kick ‘em in the gronk-nuks!”

“The what?”

“I got it!” hollers Steve. He runs around Krel’s shield and manages to land rule number three perfectly. It clearly hurts, but the knight also doesn’t double over like Toby had hoped.

“Okay, either this guy’s really tough, or they don’t have gronk-nuks,” Toby says.

“What does that even mean!?” Krel yells.

“Tell you later!” Toby raises his war-hammer and lets out his own battle-cry. He runs at the knight. He swings his hammer at their head; the knight ducks and Toby stumbles past them.

“Toby!” Krel yells. He runs towards Toby, but the knight catches him by the neck and lifts him into the air. Krel drops his serrator, hands going immediately to try to pry the knight’s hand from his throat.

“Krel!” Steve screams. He grabs Krel’s serrator from the ground and launches himself towards the knight. The knight parries his blow with their own sword. Toby lets out another cry and rushes at them. The knight disarms Steve, then throws Krel into Toby. Both of them go down. Steve stumbles to them, holding out the serrator threateningly. Krel gasps in air, hand still at his throat. Toby stands in front of him.

The knight doesn’t attack. Instead, they sheath their sword and take off their helmet. That would probably explain the lack of gronk-nuks – she’s a woman. She’s wearing some sort of head covering and glaring at them with dark eyes.

“You are not ready,” she says.

Then she turns and walks away. Toby waits until she’s far enough away before dropping back to his knees beside Krel.

“Hey, hey, man, you okay?” he asks.

Krel coughs. “I’m fine. This human body needs more air than my normal one.”

Steve gently tilts his head up and winces. “That’ll probably bruise.”

“Great,” mutters Krel.

“What was that?” Toby asks. He reverts his war-hammer to its travel form.

“I dunno, but it ruined my appetite,” says Steve.

“We should go talk to this… Douxie,” says Krel. “He might have an idea.”

Toby gets to his feet as Steve helps Krel up. As the adrenaline wears off, Toby’s hands shake. She could have killed them. She could have – could have snapped Krel’s neck then and there, and then done in with him and Steve, and there was nothing they could have done about it. And, yeah, Toby’s been in life-threatening danger before, but it never gets less terrifying.

“Let’s hope Douxie has an idea, then,” he says. “Because I never want to run into her unprepared again.”

Douxie is in the main room of the shop when they arrive. He looks happy to see them until he notices Krel leaning on Steve and the fact that they all look, generally speaking, worse for the wear.

“What happened?” he asks seriously, walking to the window and switching the open sign to closed. At Toby’s questioning look, he shrugs. “Business wasn’t exactly booming. And this looks more important. Come downstairs. I’ll get you some cocoa.”

Steve takes a moment once they get downstairs to make sure Krel’s sitting down – much to Krel’s apparent annoyance – before finally exploding. “We got attacked by a crazy lady with a sword! She nearly killed us!”

“Well, that’s not good news,” says Douxie. “Crazy lady with a sword?”

“Some sort of knight in green armour,” Toby explains.

Douxie’s brow furrows. “That sounds familiar. Hang on.”

He first disappears back up the stairs, which isn’t helpful at all. Toby sits in one of the chairs. Archie leaps onto the arm of the chair and sits as well. “He’s probably getting you that cocoa. You look like you could use it.”

“We were almost killed!” Steve seethes.

Archie tilts his head towards Krel, who immediately stops rubbing his neck and acts like nothing is wrong. “Yes, I can see that.”

Steve throws his hands in the air. “We just got over being almost killed by a crazy Akiridion-turned-god, and now we’re being almost killed by a crazy lady with a sword!”

“And I’m sure you’ll be almost killed many more times before this is over,” says Archie.

“Thanks, Archie, you’re a real ray of sunshine,” Toby says.

Archie lays down on the arm of the chair, stretching his front paws over the edge and flexing his claws. “Yes, I’m aware.”

There’s footsteps on the stairs, and then Douxie comes in, balancing four mugs of cocoa on a tray with such skill that it must be from his waiter job. He gives one to each of them and keeps one for himself.

“Okay,” he says, placing his mug down on a table and fingering through several books on a shelf nearby. “Now, green armour definitely sounds familiar. Anything else?”

“She had a sword and she almost killed us,” says Steve. “What else do you want?”

“She was really quiet,” Toby offered. “Up till she totally beat us. And then all she said was like, ‘You are not ready.’”

“That sounded nothing like her,” says Krel.

“Not ready?” repeats Douxie. He pulls out a rather large book and sits. He sips his cocoa as he flips through it. “Aha! I knew it sounded familiar. The Green Knight.”

“Seriously?” says Steve.

“Arthurian legend,” says Douxie. “My uncle loves this stuff. The Green Knight is a judge of sort. A tester of heroes.”

“Oh, great, that’s wonderful!” exclaims Steve. “That doesn’t help us at all!”

“Yeah,” says Krel. “I’m pretty sure we failed her test, anyway.”

“Maybe she won’t bother us again?” Toby suggests.

“Oh, she’ll be back,” says Douxie. “I bet she’ll keep testing you until you pass… or…”

“Or die,” guesses Krel.

Steve lets out a long groan. “I hate our lives!”

“Well, this does mean one thing,” says Douxie, as if there’s possibly a bright side to this. His smile falls quickly, though, so maybe it isn’t a bright side after all. “Archie and I were right about you. The end of the world is coming, and you three are important to stopping it.”

Somehow, that doesn’t comfort Toby at all.


	2. Red Light, Green Knight

Krel really, really, _really_ hates the forest. It’s muddy and there are animals he still doesn’t recognise and it’s impossible to find anything in the trees and underbrush, especially if it’s something important. Granted, it turned out Aja’s serrator hadn’t been in the woods, and it’s not like he has searched the woods for anything else before now. It would also help if he knew what he was looking for.

Krel leans up against a tree to catch his breath and glances at the sky through the leaves. It’s a clearer night than he’s ever seen in Arcadia. Even this deep in the woods, the light pollution is usually bad enough that he can’t see half the stars in the sky. Akiridion-5 is like that too, if not worse. As much as Krel loves technology and all its advancements, he does regret how the stars get obscured by the lights of the planet.

A faint glow catches his eyes, a few feet away from him. Finally! He scrambles towards it, kneeling to brush away the leaves and dirt. Just as he’s finally revealing it, whatever it his he’s been searching for in this stupid forest–

He wakes up.

He’s not in the forest anymore, but rather in his bed, sitting up and regaining his breath control. He has the distinct feeling something important has slipped from his grasp.

“Rise and shine, Krelito!” Krel yelps as Ricky barges into the room, complete with a bright smile and a newspaper. “Time to start your day right with a hearty breakfast!”

Krel groans and flops over to hide his face in his pillow. “It’s the summer. Let me sleep in.”

“Lucy’s making pancakes!”

Krel groans again, but there’s no winning against the Blanks, especially if Lucy has already started making pancakes. He hopes she doesn’t make too many. He’ll have to take leftovers to Toby’s house. Without Aja and Varvatos and Luug around to eat breakfast, there’ll be way too much.

Sure enough, there are already pancakes stuck to the ceiling. Krel spots one about to fall and holds his plate under it, just in time to catch it. He’s pleased to note Lucy is still using the chips of chocolate to make them.

“How’d you sleep, champ?” asks Ricky.

Krel is used to his weird turns of phrase by now, so he doesn’t question the nickname. “Fine. I had a weird dream.”

“Oh, that’s too bad,” says Lucy, flipping another pancake onto the ceiling.

Krel sighs and rests his head on his hand. Maybe Toby has a point about the Blanks. At least Aja might have asked what his dream was about, or maybe Varvatos would have told him to go kill something. The Blanks are great, and they’ve got a whole lot of sentience for a couple of robots, but they _are_ still just robots. The loneliness of the almost-empty mothership is already starting to get to his head; he regrets every time he ever wished to be an only child during a hot-headed fight with Aja.

He finishes his pancake and pushes his plate back. “I’m going to head over to Toby’s house.”

“Alright, sweetie!” chirps Lucy. “Take some pancakes for the road!”

Krel glances around the kitchen and winces at the pancakes everywhere, but he does grab some of the more salvageable ones and stuff them into a plastic container. He waves to the Blanks on his way out, leaving through what used to be the door because he might as well act as if everything is normal and they still have a front door. And a front window. He still doesn’t know how they’ll be able to fix the house decoy without Mother, but he pushes the thought away. He doesn’t want to dwell on Mother right now.

It’s such a short walk to Toby’s house that Krel is sure nothing can possibly go wrong. Unfortunately, Krel also has the worst luck in the universe, because as he rounds the corner to take him to Toby’s neighbourhood, he comes face-to-face with the knight from before.

“Oh, kleb,” he manages before she runs at him, sword drawn. The way Krel sees it, he has two options: fight back or run away. Because he’s not a soolian, he chooses the second, screaming for good measure. He grabs his serrator and undoes the transduction. The last time he faced her as a human, and that went really badly. At least his Akiridion form is a little more durable.

As he goes to turn into the bushes and maybe evade her, he’s grabbed by the arm. The knight slams him into the asphalt. Before he can push himself to his feet, she kicks him in the side and he’s sent rolling into the middle of the street. He coughs, lower hand going to the side of his chest.

“What did I ever do to you?” he forces out. He struggles to his feet and raises his serrator shield. Just in time – the knight’s sword comes down on the shield and sparks fly. Krel stumbles backwards. She runs at him again, and he switches to blaster mode and tries to shoot at her, but he misses. Before he knows it, she’s grabbed his arm and twisted it sideways. Pain sparks and he drops the serrator. The knight kicks his legs out from under him. He finds himself defenceless on the ground with a foot on his chest and a sword aimed at his throat. He swallows.

The knight stares at him. He doesn’t dare move. Then, she moves her foot and sword off him and walks away.

Krel watches her go, still half holding his breath. Then he gasps in air and pats his chest, as if maybe he was injured there and didn’t know it. His right wrists throbs from being twisted so roughly, and he’s sure he’s got bruises all over, but he’s not dead. He’s not even badly hurt.

She could have killed him easily.

Why didn’t she?

Krel shakes his head and pulls himself to his feet. He picks up his discarded serrator and replaces the transduction. His human wrist is red and swollen, which can’t be good, but Krel also doesn’t know enough about the human body to know how bad it is. Toby’s probably going to freak out.

He’s glad it’s such a short walk to Toby’s, because he’s sore all over and on edge that the knight will be back to finish what she started. He glances behind him before knocking on Toby’s door. It opens almost immediately.

“DJ Kleb!” Toby shouts. His eyebrows furrow as he takes in Krel’s appearance. “Oh, shoot, man, what happened to you?”

“I got attacked by the Green Knight,” says Krel. “_Again_.”

Toby’s eyes widen. “Come inside.”

Steve is in the living room when they walk in. He shoots out of his seat when he sees Krel come in with Toby hovering worriedly beside him. Aaarrrgghh!!!’s face falls in concern.

“Sit down,” says Toby. “Where are you hurt?”

“I’m fine,” Krel says.

“Yeah, right,” says Steve. He lifts Krel’s wrist with a gentleness Krel wouldn’t have expected from him. “This looks pretty bad. Sprained at best.”

“What is sprained?”

“If Akiridions don’t get injuries like humans, how come you _keep getting injuries like humans_?” Steve demands.

“It’s because of the transduction,” says Krel. “Same reason Aja and I cry like humans. The transduction has had the effect of making us more like biological humans and less like Akiridions.”

“Well, it’s definitely sprained,” says Steve. He notices Toby giving him a weird look and gets defensive. “What? I play football! I know injuries!”

“I still don’t know what sprained means.”

“Don’t worry about it,” says Toby. “Now what else is wrong?”

“Nothing is wrong!” Krel protests. “Just bruises.”

Steve starts prodding him to search for injuries, much the same way Mama would after a training match gone wrong. When Krel winces, Steve pulls up his t-shirt to inspect the damage. Krel tries to bat his hands away.

“Hey, hey, stop it!”

“Stop being a baby, I’m trying to make sure nothing’s broken!”

“What would be broken? You humans have too many unnecessary parts inside.”

“Would turning off the transduction make things any better?” Toby asks.

Krel sinks into his seat. “No.”

“Then stop complaining and let Steve make sure you’re okay,” Toby says.

“Domzalski, get me your first aid kit,” orders Steve. “Better yet, go next door and ask Dr. L if she has bandages and stuff. Actually, just tell Dr. L that Krel’s hurt and see if she’ll come over.”

“On it!” exclaims Toby.

“I’m really fine, Steve,” Krel says as Toby races out of the room. “I’ve had worse than this.”

“That doesn’t make me feel any better,” Steve snaps. Then he sighs. “Look, I’m just _really_ stressed about this whole end of the world thing. It doesn’t help if you’re getting yourself beat up all the time.”

If he didn’t know Steve, Krel probably would be offended by that, but Steve means well. Maybe worrying over people is the way he shows he cares. Krel’s even seen him do it to Aja before, so that must be it. Krel offers him a smile.

“More careful,” says Aaarrrgghh!!!.

Krel laughs. “I’ll try.”

“Good,” huffs Steve.

Krel hears the door open. A few seconds later, Toby enters the room with a woman Krel doesn’t recognise. She smiles kindly at them and sets down what looks like a white suitcase on the couch next to him.

“Hi, Krel, right?” she says. Krel nods. “I’m Jim’s mom, Barbara. Toby said you guys were roughhousing and you got a bit beat up?”

Krel glances at Toby, who nods vigorously, and back to Barbara. “Uh, yes. That is what happened. Just us… roughhousing.”

She quirks an eyebrow but doesn’t question it. “Alright. Let’s see that wrist of yours first.”

Krel holds it out. Barbara makes a sympathetic noise.

“Sprained, right?” Steve says.

“Definitely,” says Barbara. “You’ll need to rest and ice it for a few days. Try to keep in elevated. I have Jim’s old brace from when he sprained his wrist a couple years back. It should fit you. Let me just wrap it and then you can put it on, okay, sweetie?”

Krel isn’t entirely clear on what she means, but he nods anyway. She pulls a roll of bandages out of her suitcase – those, at least, Krel recognises – and starts wrapping the cloth around Krel’s wrist. He winces but doesn’t protest.

“If you have any questions, feel free to ask,” Barbara says. “I know you’re kind of new to all this human stuff.”

Krel smiles sheepishly. “Yeah, a little bit.”

She finishes wrapping his wrist and pulls out what must be the brace. She helps him put it on. It’s stiff and uncomfortable, but she’s a doctor so she must know best. He grabs his serrator and switches off the transduction. Barbara blinks rapidly in surprise. The brace is still there, and seems to have adjusted to fit. Krel isn’t sure if that’s the transduction technology or the human brace, but either way, it’s probably a good thing. He turns the transduction back on.

“His chest is pretty bruised,” says Steve, very unhelpfully. Krel shoots him a glare. “He did a pretty terrible job defending himself – you know, in our… roughhousing.”

Barbara wears the same mixed expression of concerned and amused that Mama always got when he and Aja would do something stupid. Krel wonders if that’s a mother thing that exists in all life-forms.

“Alright, then,” says Barbara. “Let’s make sure it’s just a bit of bruising.”

By the time Barbara has given him the relatively clean bill of health and assured Steve that no bones were broken – which, by the way, it’s kind of annoying to have to deal with all these breakable parts – it’s almost lunchtime. Barbara offers to make them lunch, but Toby shakes his head forcefully in the background, so they politely decline. Toby orders pizza instead.

“You know this means we can’t go anywhere alone,” Toby says as he tosses the empty pizza box to Aaarrrgghh!!! to eat.

“What?” blurts Steve. “How does this mean we can’t go anywhere alone?”

“Krel lives a block over, and the Green Knight still managed to corner him on his way here,” Toby says. “It’s too risky.”

“Toby’s right,” says Krel. “She could have killed me! At least I had my serrator. If I hadn’t, who knows what would have happened! We need to stick together until we figure this out.”

“Look, it’s not that you guys aren’t great,” says Steve, “but I do have other friends.”

Krel crosses his arms, which is incredibly awkward to do with the brace. “And what happens if you’re with your other friends and the Green Knight shows up? Then _they_ could die.”

Steve falters, then he buries his face in his hands. “Have I mentioned I hate this summer?”

“Hey, it’ll be kinda fun!” Toby opens his arms as enthusiastically as possible. “We can have sleepovers!”

“Sleep… overs?” Krel repeats.

“Yeah! We can rotate houses! You guys can stay over at mine, and then me and Steve can stay over at yours, and then me and you can stay over at Steve’s.”

“That sounds fantastic!” In Krel’s opinion, it works out perfectly. Not only is it less likely that one of them will be killed on their own, but now Krel won’t be so lonely and he doesn’t even have to admit he was lonely in the first place.

Steve softens at their enthusiasm. “Yeah, I guess it’ll be alright.”

“Don’t worry,” says Toby. He jerks his thumb towards his chest. “The Trollhunters have dealt with this before.”

“Stalkling,” rumbles Aaarrrgghh!!!.

“Yep,” says Toby. “We couldn’t leave Jimbo alone or else this thing called a stalkling would come and kill him.”

“Failed,” adds Aaarrrgghh!!!. “Stalkling got Jim.”

“_But_ Jim was okay because he shocked it with lightning!”

“And himself.”

“And himself, but he was okay because Aaarrrgghh!!! caught him!”

“Kind of burnt.”

“I’m trying to reassure them,” Toby finally hisses to the troll.

“Oh,” says Aaarrrgghh!!!. “Sorry.”

“That’s real reassuring,” says Steve.

Toby throws his hands up. “The point is, we just gotta stick together! We’re a team now.”

“A team…” Krel mumbles. He gives his friends a wide grin. Toby returns it immediately, and Steve does so after a few moments.

“We need a team name!” exclaims Toby. “We could be… Creephunterz! Wait, no, what about Krel? Royal Creephunterz!”

“No,” says Steve.

“Knights of the Vaguely Oval-Shaped Table!”

“What does that even mean?” Krel asks.

“It’s an Arthurian reference, dude!”

“I don’t know what that means either,” says Krel.

“I mean, it makes sense,” says Steve, as if he hates what he’s saying but has to say it. “But won’t that get confusing with the evil knight?”

“Not if we just call her the Green Knight,” says Toby. “And I haven’t heard a no.”

“Why do we need a team name?” Krel asks.

Toby rolls his eyes like this should be obvious. “Trollhunters have one, Creepslayerz have one, we gotta have one!”

Krel shrugs. “Well, I am fine with anything.”

“Shouldn’t we get help with this?” says Steve. “Maybe we should call Aja–”

“No!” Krel blurts. Steve and Toby both stare at him. He shrinks back. “Aja has a lot to worry about on Akiridion-5. We – they just dealt with a coup, and she’s just become queen. We shouldn’t bother her.”

Also, if Aja knows about this, she’ll freak out and might ask him to come back to Akiridion-5. And Krel and his friends can handle this. They don’t need Aja’s help. Maybe some help, but not Aja’s. Krel can _do things_ without his sister.

“He’s got a point,” says Toby. “We probably shouldn’t tell Eli, either. That guy cannot keep a secret.”

Steve looks crestfallen. “But Pepperjack would be stoked to hear about this.”

“If Aja can’t know, Eli can’t know,” says Toby. “He found out about aliens and immediately sent me, like, a bazillion texts! He’d have to tell someone, so he’d tell Aja.”

Steve crosses his arms and scowls. “Fine. But just so you know, if either of them get mad at me later, I’m blaming you two.”

They’re going to be mad. Aja is going to be especially mad. But Krel doesn’t need her to protect him from everything.

“That’s fine,” he says. “I’ve faced my sister’s wrath before. And I don’t think Eli can hold very much anger, anyway.”

“You’d be surprised,” Steve muttered.

“Now,” says Toby. “I, for one, vote we spend the rest of our day not thinking about all this and acting like normal teenagers for once. Who’s up for a video game tournament?”

Krel lights up. “You’re on, Domzalski!”

Ultimately, they opt to spend the first night at Krel’s. Both Steve and Krel will need to get their things, and Krel’s house is the furthest walk, so it’s the logical decision. As Toby and Steve set up sleeping bags in Krel’s lab, he muses that it already feels less lonely.

“You should really fix up the house,” says Toby. “Anyone could just, like, walk in!”

“I know,” says Krel. “Why do you think we’re sleeping down here, with the entrance to the ship locked?”

“Do you normally sleep down here?”

“…no.”

Toby tuts disapprovingly. “That’s how you get kidnapped.”

“I’m not going to get kidnapped,” scoffs Krel.

“That’s what they all say,” says Toby.

Krel laughs and sits down on his sleeping bag. Steve lays down in his with a yawn. “Man, I’m wiped.”

“How do you think I feel?” says Krel. “At least you didn’t have to fight the Green Knight.”

Steve points at him accusingly. “No, but I had to deal with the aftermath, and it was stressful, okay?”

“I think _I_ am the one dealing with the aftermath,” says Krel, waving his braced wrist in the air. “I can barely move my hand in this! I am not keeping it on for two weeks.”

Toby and Steve both glare at him disapprovingly.

“I’m not!” he protests. “I’ll take it off when it stops hurting. Stop giving me those looks. For all you know, Akiridions heal faster than humans, anyway.”

“Do they?” asks Steve.

Krel winces. “I don’t know. But I bet they – uh, we do!”

“We’ll believe it when we see it,” says Toby. “Trust me, I’ve gotten all this from Jimbo before. The armour does not, no matter what he says, make him heal faster.”

Steve holds his fingers to his eyes, then turns them towards Krel. “I’m watching you.”

Krel is somewhat perturbed, but he repeats the gesture anyway. “Well, I am watching you, too.”

Steve snorts, then full on laughs. Krel isn’t sure whether to be insulted or laugh with him.

“Ah, never change,” says Steve.

Krel stands to dim the lights so they can sleep. It makes him sad to do it manually, reminds him once more that Mother is gone and the ship isn’t much more than an empty husk. He crawls into his sleeping bag. The brace is uncomfortable, but with Toby and Steve ready to pounce the moment he makes one wrong move, he doesn’t dare take it off.

“Night, guys,” says Toby.

Steve mumbles something that might be a goodnight. Krel covers his mouth to hide his smile, before adding his own, “Goodnight!”

He’s out almost immediately.

He’s back in the forest. It’s still night-time, and the stars are still unusually bright. Something is chirping around him, putting him on edge, but he’s pretty sure it’s just Earth insects he still doesn’t know the name for. He doesn’t like Earth insects, but at least they’re smaller than skeltegs.

The fallen leaves and twigs crunch under his feet. Some nearby animal lets out a mournful _hoo_ sound and Krel shivers. He hates being out here, but he still hasn’t found it. He needs to find it.

He wishes he knew what _it_ was.

He takes a few more steps before catching sight of the glow again. He leans down to pick it up and discover its secrets, when something starts shaking him violently.

“Krel! _Krel_!”

He gasps awake to the concerned faces of Steve and Toby hovering over him. Krel blinks tiredly at him.

“Guys?” he says. “What’s the matter?”

They exchange uneasy glances.

“You were, uh, glowing,” says Steve.

Krel’s brow furrows. “So? I always glow.”

“More than usual,” says Toby. “Like, a lot more. You went from nightlight to, I dunno, stadium light.”

Okay. That is a little weird.

“Sorry,” he says. He must’ve woken them up.

“Are you okay?” says Steve. “Is this some kind of – weird Akiridion sickness? Are you dying?”

“No, I am not _dying_.” Krel pauses. “I think.”

“You _think_!?”

“I doubt it,” says Krel.

“But the glowing thing _isn’t_ normal?” says Toby.

“Well, no.” Krel awkwardly sinks into his sleeping bag. It’s suddenly cold in the room, and Toby and Steve look worried and tired and it’s his fault. “It’s fine, guys. Go back to sleep.”

“And you won’t, like, explode?” checks Steve.

“No,” says Krel. “I won’t explode.”

“We’ll be talking about this,” says Toby.

“Yeah, yeah,” says Krel. “After getting some more sleep.”

The two glare at him, but they concede and go back to their sleeping bags. Krel turns away from them to hide his expression. He doesn’t know why he was glowing so bright, but he has a bad feeling it has to do with these dreams.

The next morning, Lucy tries to make bacon and eggs. In Krel’s opinion, it’s going pretty badly, but he’s glad for the change of pace. Steve and Toby don’t complain either, maybe because they don’t want to hurt Lucy’s feelings. Either way, breakfast is going fine.

“So,” says Toby. “The glowing thing.”

Breakfast _was_ going fine. Krel winces. “The glowing thing.”

“Yeah, man, that was super weird,” says Steve.

“Tell me about it,” mutters Krel. “I’m sorry I woke you up.”

“That’s not what we’re worried about, dude,” says Toby. “Is it – bad? Dangerous? Should we get you to an Akiridion doctor?”

“If it helps, I didn’t even notice it,” says Krel. “I don’t think it’s bad, just weird.”

“We don’t need more weird stuff,” groans Steve. “So, great. We have a knight stalking us, the world is ending, and Krel might be _dying_!”

“I’m not _dying_!”

“I said might be!”

“Look, I had a weird dream, and I think that might have been it,” says Krel.

“A weird dream made you light up like a frickin’ fourth of July sparkler?” says Steve.

Toby leans forward. “We’re stumbling into some freaky high fantasy stuff here. Prophetic dreams?”

“Prophetic – where on Earth do you get prophetic?” splutters Krel. “They’re just weird.”

“Aha, they!” shouts Toby. “So multiple dreams!”

“Yes,” says Krel exasperatedly. “Two. I’m looking for something, but I always wake up when I find it so I don’t know what it is.”

Steve lets out a prolonged, annoyed moan. Toby kicks his legs under the table eagerly and makes a high-pitched noise. “Do I sense a super awesome quest?”

“No,” Krel says.

“Please, no,” adds Steve.

“We don’t have time for a quest,” says Krel. “In case you forgot, the end of the world is coming up.”

“Maybe this is related!”

“Prophetic dreams aren’t real, Toby,” Krel retorts. “And if they were, I’d be the last one to have them.”

Toby gives him an unimpressed look. Even Steve looks sceptical.

“Really!” Krel insists.

“Alien prince,” says Toby, holding up a hand to start ticking off fingers. “Living in a world that’s not your own. A world that’s ending. Dreams about some mysterious something. Randomly glowing.”

“Sounds like the plot of a magical girl anime,” says Steve. “You even have a transformation! Sorta.”

Toby pauses to give Steve a weird look. “Okay. We’ll be coming back to that comment in a minute. Also, Jim’s the magical girl. Krel is more… hm…”

“I have a little cousin!” Steve defends himself.

“Fantasy chosen one!” Toby exclaims. “Or sci-fi.”

“Aaghh, can we not discuss this?” Krel complains.

“I’m mostly joking,” says Toby. “But, seriously. Don’t just dismiss weird dreams. Especially if they make you glow all weird.”

“I’ll take that into consideration,” says Krel.

Steve laughs, but his expression drops immediately into horror. He gestures wordlessly towards the window, only able to make weird noises at first before finally yelling, “She’s following us!”

Krel turns and his eyes widen. The Green Knight is standing outside on the sidewalk, watching them. Krel had no idea how long she’s been there. Without Mother, the ship’s security is almost completely down. She could have been there all morning.

“Okay, stay calm,” says Toby. “Maybe if we act like we haven’t notice her, she won’t move.”

The Green Knight starts walking towards the house. Toby shrinks in his seat.

“Or not,” he mumbles.

Krel grabs his serrator, then – glad he’d had the foresight to consider it this morning – he grabs the extra one he’d brought out with him and shoves it into Steve’s hands.

“Here,” he says. “You know how to use it?”

“Uh, no,” says Steve. “But I’m a quick learner.”

The three of them stand. Krel activates his serrator. Steve mimics him. Toby activates his war-hammer as well. Krel still has no idea how it works, but he’ll have the chance to ask later. The Green Knight steps in through the shattered window. Maybe staying at Krel’s was a bad choice.

“Look, lady,” says Toby. “We don’t mean you any harm, so can you stop attacking us? Please?”

She runs at them. Krel and Steve dive one way and Toby the other. The Knight turns on Toby. He swings his hammer at her, but she ducks. She grabs him and throws him into Krel and Steve, bowling them over. Steve pushes Krel and Toby away and lets loose a battle-cry. He runs at the Knight with serrator sword drawn. She dodges again.

“Oh, no, you don’t!” Lucy yells. She grabs a bunch of plates from the cabinet – half of them already broken from the fight against Morando and Kubritz – and starts chucking them at the Knight. She bats them away and advances on Lucy. Ricky steps in the way with a cutting board. He tries to hit her with it, but she hits him instead with an uppercut to the jaw. Lucy tries to stab her with a fork. The armour protects her from that. The Knight grabs her arm and twists it. It comes clean off, leaving wires and sparks. Both Lucy and the Knight look surprised.

“Leave them alone!” Krel cries. He yells as he runs at the Knight with his serrator, but she catches him with a kick to the core. Krel hits the counter and blinks stars out of his vision. Oh, that hurt.

“Hey!” shouts Steve. He shoots several rapid blasts at the Knight, who holds up her arms to block them. She’s sent flying across the room. It’s the best hit any of them have managed. Steve pulls Krel to his feet. “You good?”

“I’m good,” Krel manages.

Toby roars and runs at the Knight with his hammer again. She parries his attack, then kicks him right between the legs. Toby wheezes and collapses. The Knight looks unimpressed. She side-steps him and advances on Steve and Krel.

“Together?” says Krel.

“Together,” agrees Steve.

They both shoot at her. It doesn’t work this time. She dodges the poorly aimed blasts with ease. She grabs Steve by the neck, Steve panics and starts kicking out, trying to break her grip. Krel takes another shot. This one hits her – she drops Steve. He scrambles back and struggles to regain his breath control. Krel gulps.

Toby, recovered now, runs at her from behind. The Knight grabs Krel and spins around, placing him between her and Toby. Toby freezes in horror. Krel doesn’t dare struggle too much against the cold blade against his neck.

“No, no, no,” gasps Steve. He grasps the couch and pulls himself to his feet. “Don’t.”

The blade presses harder. He can feel it breaking skin. Krel squeezes his eyes shut. Seklos and Gaylen, is this the end?

Then, the cold metal disappears. Krel is released. He falls to his knees, not daring to open his eyes. He feels hands on him – Toby and Steve, he can recognise them. When he opens his eyes, the Green Knight is already to the road. She glances back at them, unemotionally, and then walks away.

“Krel?” says Steve. There’s a note of panic shaking his voice. Warm liquid trickles, slowly, down Krel’s neck, seeping into the collar of his clothing. Krel gingerly brings his fingers up to the wound. It’s tiny. Bad enough to draw blood but not bad enough to be considered much worse than a papercut.

It could have been so much worse.

His friends steady him as he sits back on his legs.

“I think,” he says, “I would like to go a day without almost dying. Is that too much to ask?”

Toby laughs weakly. “I feel you there, man.”

Krel observes the damage and grimaces. So much for what little clean-up they had done. Ricky is fussing over Lucy’s detached and sparking arm. Krel will need to fix that. The living room and kitchen is in shambles – well, more so than before. The floor is littered with furniture and broken plates and now tiny drops of bright blue blood on the hardwood. That stain will be fun to explain to Aja if she ever visits.

“Here,” says Steve, handing Krel a wad of paper towels. “We’ll get you a band-aid in a minute.”

Toby’s hands are shaking. Actually, Krel and Steve’s are too, now that he takes the time to notice. The adrenaline is beginning to fade.

“She almost killed you,” says Toby.

“Again,” mumbles Krel, pressing the paper towels to his cut. “But she didn’t. Again.”

“Why didn’t she?” says Steve hesitantly. “It wouldn’t have been very hard, if Akiridions are anything like humans.”

“It wouldn’t have been.” Krel shakes his head. “I think we need to go talk to Douxie again. This needs to stop.”


	3. Do You Believe in Magic?

Steve is so done with this third apocalypse already, and it hasn’t even been a week. They’ve been attacked by a crazy lady in a suit of armour three times, if he counts the time Krel got attacked by himself, and Steve’s pretty sure if it happens again one of them is going to be killed. Probably Krel. How is Steve supposed to tell his girlfriend that within a week of her leaving he let her little brother get murdered?

Oh, and, by the way, the Knight’s still following them.

“I thought for sure we could lose her on the Vespa!” Toby cries as they park outside Douxie’s shop. The Green Knight stands across the street. She doesn’t move to attack them, at least. Steve doesn’t think he’s ready for another attack after the last one. He climbs off his Vespa and tugs off his helmet, then helps Krel with his because the boy is struggling.

“Thanks,” mutters Krel. His cheeks look bruised, but Steve realises that’s just him blushing. Makes sense, since he doesn’t have red blood. He gives the Akiridion’s hair a brotherly ruffle and Krel ducks away to fix it. “Hey! Steve!”

Douxie’s organising things as they walk in. The shop still doesn’t have any customers. Steve isn’t sure if they always come at the wrong time or if the shop really has no business. Toby stomps up to him, spins him around, and points at the window.

“She’s still trying to kill us!” he exclaims.

“Not kill us,” Krel corrects. “If she was trying to kill us, we’d be dead.”

Douxie’s eyes widen as he looks over them. Krel awkwardly waves at him with his braced arm, but the wizard’s eyes land on the band-aid on his neck and stay there. That would have been Steve’s focus too. He’d never admit it out loud, but he’s still a bit scared. He’d thought for sure that Krel was about to be killed right in front of them. And then, of course, it would have been his and Toby’s turns, after the trauma of watching their younger friend die.

“She’s across the street right now,” says Steve. He looks back briefly. Yep. Still there. “We got attacked this morning and she’s stalked us since.”

“You led her _here_!?” Douxie exclaims. He runs behind the front desk and puts his hand down, and a shimmering barrier flashes to life outside the shop. It fades a few seconds later, but Steve has no doubt it’s still there.

“Woah,” says Krel. “What was that?”

“A magical barrier,” Douxie says. “To protect you and the shop. No one will be able to get in here if they mean any of us any harm. Even if she isn’t trying to actually kill you, she definitely means you harm.”

“No kidding,” says Toby.

“Come on,” says Douxie. He pushes back the rug and opens the trapdoor to his library. They follow him downstairs. Archie is sitting on the desk reading a book. His ears twitch towards them as they enter, but he doesn’t look up.

“Can you put barrier-thingies around our houses?” asks Toby.

“That might be a good idea,” agrees Douxie. “Unfortunately, I’m not very skilled in protective enchantments.”

“But you have one here!”

“Yeah, but my uncle made that one.” He grabs a book off the shelf and flips it open, laying it on the floor and sitting beside it. Toby groans and sits as well, and Steve and Krel follow his lead. “Hmm… well, these books aren’t much help. She’s going to keep coming after you until you beat her.”

“Well, that’s just great,” says Steve. “She could at least try not to hurt us if she wants us to beat her.”

“I don’t think she wants us to beat her, dude,” says Toby.

“We suck!” Steve exclaims. “We’re all terrible at fighting! We’ll never beat her!”

Douxie taps his fingers on the open book. “I might have an idea.”

Krel perks up. “That’s better than nothing. What’s your idea?”

“I have a friend who’s pretty good at combat,” he says. “I bet I could convince her to train you guys. If you learn how to fight, maybe you can beat the Knight working together.”

“We get hero training!?” Toby pumps his fists in the air. “Alright! This is gonna be awesome-sauce!”

“Oh, great,” says Krel with no enthusiasm whatsoever.

“I’ll call her then,” says Douxie, pulling his cell phone from his hoodie pocket. He dials his friend and puts the phone to his ear. Toby leans forward eagerly. Krel turns the book so he can either read it or glare at it. It’s unclear from his expression. Reading or not, he’s definitely glaring. Krel _can_ read English, right? He must be able to, he did fine in school. Douxie’s friend must pick up, because he smiles and begins talking. “Hey, Nim – yes, yes, I know you’re busy… yes, this has to do with the knight outside – yes, I know people are staring… no, he’s at that conference in Nevada – Nim, Nim, listen, I need a favour.”

Steve glances at Toby. He shrugs.

“I have some friends who need combat training – I know that’s not your job, but you’re the only person I know who could train them… please? I’ll owe you one. Another one – thank you. Come through the back. I promise you won’t regret it!” He lowers the phone and winces. “Guys, please don’t make her regret it.”

“No promises,” says Krel.

There’s a loud, groaning noise, and suddenly one of the bookcases sinks into the floor. Steve yelps and scrambles back. “Your bookcase just disappeared!”

“I already regret it,” says a new voice. A pink-haired girl walks through the spot the bookcase had been, and it shoots back into place as soon as she’s through. She crosses her arms and looks over them. Krel inches backwards with a weak smile.

“Oh, it’s you,” he says awkwardly.

“Oh, boy,” she says. “You’re one of the aliens, aren’t you?”

“Actually, I prefer Akiridion,” says Krel.

She waves him off. “Makes a lot more sense now. At least I know you actually didn’t know what shoplifting is. This the lot you want me to train, Douxie?”

“Yep,” says Douxie. “That knight out there has been following them and attacking them. As you can tell, they’ve been losing.”

“Why has a knight been attacking them?”

“We’re not _entirely_ sure,” says Douxie. “Archie and I think they’re supposed to help prevent the end of the world.”

“Them?” she says. “You’ve got to be kidding me.”

“The Green Knight is testing them!” exclaims Douxie. “That has to mean something.”

“Considering she hasn’t attacked anyone else in Arcadia,” says Toby, preening, “I’d say we’re pretty special.”

“When I said I wanted to be special, this is _not_ what I meant,” Steve snaps.

Douxie’s friend sighs and runs a hand through her hair. “Alright, fine. Can’t let a bunch of kids get killed and have that on my conscious. Thanks, Douxie.”

Douxie gives her a sheepish smile.

“Okay, children, follow me,” she says, lips twisting into a shark-like grin. “My name’s Nimue and I guess I’m going to be training you.”

Krel voiced all their thoughts for them: “Oh, kleb.”

As it turns out, while Nimue’s family owns a record shop, they also own their own mini-gym underneath the record shop. Steve is beginning to wonder just how many secret underground places there are in Arcadia.

“This,” says Nimue, walking them into a fairly large and empty room with padded floors, “is where my moms and I train. Mom is a wizard and Mama was in the military for years. I learned all I know from them.”

“My parents used to train me,” says Krel. He frowns and Toby puts a comforting hand on his arm.

Nimue looks him up and down, clearly unimpressed. “Looks like they didn’t do that great a job.”

Krel’s face darkens. “Aja is a great warrior! I just – never got into it.”

“Well, you’re going to have to,” she says. “Alright, I’m going to spar each of you individually to get an idea of your fighting styles and abilities. Who wants to go first?”

Toby’s hand shoots up. “Me! Me! Pick me!”

“You’re up, Red,” says Nimue.

“Yes!” Toby hisses, running out into the middle of the room. He activates his war-hammer and jumps from foot to foot excitedly. “I happen to have some training under my belt. Trained with Jimbo.”

“Trollish training is fine for fighting trolls,” says Nimue. “But this knight isn’t a troll. And clearly you don’t have enough training to beat them.”

“Okay, but she’s crazy skilled,” protests Toby.

Nimue flips back her hair and smirks. “So am I.”

She flicks her wrists, and glowing, sparking daggers form in her hands. Toby audibly gulps. Steve sits on the side-lines. Krel does the same.

“This is gonna be good,” Steve says.

“You realise we’re next?” Krel points out.

“Still gonna enjoy this.”

Nimue tilts her head and motions for Toby to come at her. Toby charges with a yell. Nimue side-steps and sticks out a foot. Toby trips over it and stumbles, only staying upright thanks to his magic hammer. Within moments, Nimue has him disarmed with his hands up in surrender.

“Dead,” she says. “_So_ dead. Now let’s try that again, but this time, try to stay alive longer than two minutes.”

“Sounds good,” Toby squeaks. He looks a lot less enthusiastic after getting beaten once.

“This time, look for an opening and use it,” says Nimue. “Don’t get overconfident. It’ll be your downfall.”

“Right,” says Toby.

Nimue runs at him. Toby actually manages to dodge, which is more than Steve was expecting. Nimue turns, quick as lightning, but Toby manages to catch her daggers on the long handle of his hammer.

“Good,” says Nimue. “But not good enough.”

She twists the hammer out of his grip, then crosses her blades at his neck.

“Dead,” she says.

“Aw, man,” says Toby.

“One more try,” she says.

Toby winces but plasters on a determined look and readies himself. Nimue charges again, and he thrusts his war-hammer up and lets it carry him into the air. Steve throws his fist up and cheers. Toby lands behind Nimue and swings the hammer at her, but she ducks into a roll and grins.

“Much better,” she says, before kicking her leg out at him. He jumps back, then rears back for another attack. Nimue drops the daggers. The hammer comes down, and she catches it with magenta-sparking hands. Toby’s face pulls into panic and she adjusts her grip to the handle. She throws Toby across the room.

“Yield!” he yells as she approaches, daggers in hand once again. “I yield, you win!”

“We can try again later.” Nimue’s daggers disappear from her hands and she looks to Steve and Krel. “Who’s next?”

“Not it!” Steve yelps.

Krel gives him a wide-eyed look of betrayal. “No fair!”

“Alright, E.T., let’s see what you’ve got,” says Nimue.

“My name is Krel,” he says. “And I will pass.”

She beckons to him with a hand. “Don’t worry. I’ll go easier on you since you’re injured.”

Krel laughs uneasily. “Do I have to?”

“Yes,” says Nimue flatly.

Krel glares at Steve before getting up and trading places with Toby. Steve leans back and chuckles. “Wish I had popcorn.”

“Me too,” says Toby. “Especially for when you get up there and get your butt whooped.”

“Hey,” Steve protests.

Krel activates his serrator into sword form. He holds it awkwardly in his left hand. Steve feels kind of bad. He knows Krel isn’t a fighter, and now he’s having to fight with his non-dominant hand. Actually, Steve wonders how that works in Akiridion form. Does he have two dominant hands? What if Krel is actually ambidextrous? Is there another word if someone has four hands?

“Okay, _Krel_,” says Nimue. “Come at me.”

Krel turns to Steve and Toby. His expression screams for help. Toby gives him two thumbs-up. Krel groans, then turns back to Nimue. He runs forward, towards her, then, at the last second, switches his serrator to shield form and uses it to slide around her. Steve’s mildly impressed. Krel switches back to sword mode. Nimue turns and parries him with her daggers.

“Nice trick,” she says.

“Uh, thanks,” says Krel.

And then Nimue kicks him in the shin and he drops with a yelp.

“Pay attention to your opponent,” she says, grabbing his brace and making him drop his serrator. She aims her daggers towards him. “Not just their weapons.”

“Low blow!” Steve calls, cupping his hands around his mouth. “He’s injured!”

“Your enemies won’t care about that,” says Nimue, tossing Krel his serrator. “They’ll use your injuries against you much worse than I just did. Watch your weak spots.”

“Ay-yi-yi, watch your opponent, watch your weak spots,” Krel grumbles, pushing himself to his feet. He shakes his bad arm with a wince. “I only have two eyes.”

“Again,” says Nimue. “This time I’ll attack first.”

Krel moans and reactivates his serrator. This time, he automatically makes it a shield.

“You got this, Krel!” Toby cheers.

“No, I really don’t,” says Krel.

Nimue runs at him. Krel panics and runs the other way, screaming.

Yeah. He really doesn’t have this.

“Krel!” snaps Nimue, as Krel turns off his transduction and starts literally climbing the wall to get away from her. “This isn’t _tag_! You have to face me! Stop running!”

“I prefer to call it a tactical retreat,” Krel calls back.

Toby covers his mouth to hide a laugh. Steve is torn between amusement or embarrassment for his friend. Running isn’t the worst plan, but from what Steve understands, it hasn’t exactly done him much good. If it had, he wouldn’t have a sprained wrist.

Nimue lets out a frustrated sigh, then runs to the wall and grabs Krel’s foot. He yelps as she yanks his leg, then loses his grip and falls to the floor, groaning. He sits up, rubbing his head. Nimue stands above him with arms crossed and expression annoyed. He awkwardly laughs.

“_Again_,” she says. “Without any ‘tactical retreats’ this time. Did running away work against the knight?”

“No,” Krel says morosely.

She pulls him to his feet, then crosses several steps from him. Krel reactivates his serrator.

“He’s still doing better than you,” Steve tells Toby, even though Toby’d actually done pretty well his last try. Not that Steve would ever tell him that. He does have a reputation to keep up.

“Aw, shut up,” mutters Toby.

Krel does not do better than any of Toby’s tries the second time. Krel is flat on his back in a minute flat. Nimue pinches the bridge of her nose.

“No wonder you’ve been losing even three against one,” she says. “Alright. Blondie, your turn.”

“Yippee,” mumbles Steve.

“Good luck,” says Krel. His form shimmers and shifts back into its human disguise. Steve squares off against Nimue, activating the serrator Krel gave him. Does he get to keep this? He should ask.

“Alright,” says Nimue. “Let’s go.”

He’ll ask later.

Steve adjusts his grip on the serrator sword, then charges. She catches the blade with her daggers, which, up close, don’t look like metal daggers at all. Huh. They’re probably magic daggers. That makes sense. Well, in the way that nothing in his life makes sense any more.

Steve switches the serrator to static, leaving Nimue to stumble at the sudden change, Steve side-steps, then activates the shield as close as he can to Nimue. She flips backwards, daggers vanishing in sparks so she can vault herself back to her feet.

“Clever,” she praises. Steve preens, but then she’s running at him, daggers in hand. He yelps and dodges, but she catches his foot with hers and he tumbles to the floor. He rolls over and activates his shield against her daggers.

“How are you so good!?” he grunts.

“Lots and lots of practice,” she says, “which you clearly lack.”

Steve switches the serrator back to static and rolls out of the way. He scrambles backwards on his elbows as Nimue advances. Before he can reactivate the serrator, she yanks it out of his hand and throws it across the room. He makes a strangled scream that _totally wasn’t a scream_ and holds up his arms to defend himself, squeezing his eyes shut.

Dead silence.

He pries his eyes open carefully. He doesn’t feel pain. Nimue is just standing there, shocked, behind a golden barrier.

“Uh,” says Steve. “Is this some new attack? Did you trap me!?”

“I didn’t do that, Blondie,” she says slowly.

Steve glances at his friends. Toby’s jaw has dropped. Krel is standing, eyes wide. The serrator is still across the room. He gulps, then lets his arms fall and relax. The barrier flickers and fades.

“Did I do that…?” he manages in a small voice.

“DUDE!” Toby shouts. He and Krel run across the room to him. Krel helps him to his feet. Toby bounces excitedly. “Dude, dude, _dude_, you just did _magic_!”

Steve looks at his hands in awe. “I – I did?”

“Yer a wizard, Steve,” Toby says.

Krel gives him a weird look at the fake accent, then shakes his head. “That was definitely unexpected.”

“A Trollhunter, an alien, and a wizard,” says Nimue deliberately. A shiver runs down Steve’s spine. Him? A wizard? “Maybe Douxie is onto something. Come on. I think training’s over for the day.”

Steve keeps staring at his hands as they walk back to Douxie’s. Krel puts a hand on his shoulder.

“You okay?” he says.

“I didn’t know magic was real a few months ago,” says Steve. “And now I _have it_?”

“Life is weird like that, man,” says Toby. “Few months ago my best friend was human. Now he’s a troll! I mean, weird stuff happens.”

“And a few months ago, I was preparing to become king-in-waiting,” adds Krel. “Things change really fast.”

Steve crosses his arms and hides his hands close to his chest. He doesn’t know anything about magic. Could he accidentally hurt someone with it? Why can’t this summer be normal? What, exactly, does the universe have against him specifically?

Douxie isn’t in the library when the enter. Archie glances up, somehow making an expression of scepticism even though he’s a cat.

“You’re back early,” he says. “Shall I fetch Douxie?”

“Please do,” says Nimue. “Before Steve has a panic attack, preferably.”

“I’m fine,” Steve snaps.

He’s not fine, even if he won’t admit that. Does this mean his mom is a wizard? Or his – ugh – biological dad? He hopes it’s not his biological dad. He doesn’t want to have inherited something as cool as magic from that buttsnack. He doesn’t think either of them are, though. Can someone just… poof? Have magic?

Krel and Toby guide him to an armchair and sit him down.

“Listen, I know this is a lot,” says Toby, “but it’s gonna be okay. You’ve got us to help you through it! You’re still Steve. Annoying, kinda dense, but you’ve got a good heart!”

“And magic now,” adds Krel. “So you’re – super Steve!”

“That’s a terrible superhero name,” Toby shoots down immediately.

Steve manages a laugh. “Not every day you find out you have _magic_.”

“I dunno, man,” says Toby. “That sounds kinda every day for our lives.”

“That’s… fair,” Steve admits.

Douxie comes running down the stairs into the library. “What’s wrong? Who’s hurt? Nim, I asked you to train them, not traumatise them!”

Nimue rolls her eyes. “I didn’t traumatise anyone.”

“She traumatised us,” says Toby.

“Shush.” Nimue flicks him in the head. “The blond one is a wizard.”

Douxie does a double-take. “Since when?”

“Since now, apparently,” she retorts. “He made a shield with magic.”

“Can you do it again?”

“I don’t know how I did it in the first place!” Steve protests. “It was an accident! I didn’t even know it was me!”

“Sixteen is a bit of a later bloomer,” mumbles Douxie. “And neither of your parents are wizards?”

“Mom’s definitely not,” says Steve. “And if my buttsnack dad was, he didn’t show it.”

“A first-gen then,” says Douxie. “And this is the first time you’ve used magic?”

“As far as I know,” says Steve.

“You’ll need training,” Douxie muses. He taps his chin, then lights up. “I’ll call my uncle. He’s out of town right now, but when he gets back, I’m sure he’d be happy to teach you. He taught me everything I know. This could be a great asset against the Green Knight!”

“Trolls, aliens, and wizards,” says Nimue, pointing to each of them in turn. “I think you’re on to something, Douxie. Not sure where we’d find a trio like this.”

“I think I am, too,” says Douxie. “How has their combat training been going?”

“Terribly,” says Nimue. “Steve was doing pretty well, somehow.”

“Hey!”

“Toby did well, too, once he stopped being overconfident,” she continues. Then she glowers at Krel. He shrinks back. “Krel tried to run away.”

“It was a tactical retreat!”

“You climbed the wall! That’s not tactical!”

“Yes, it was!”

“Let it go, DJ Kleb,” says Toby, patting Krel on the arm.

“She’s scary,” Krel mumbles under his breath so only Toby and Steve would hear. “It’s not my fault she almost killed me.”

“I didn’t almost kill you,” says Nimue. “Baby.”

“I am not a baby!”

“Alright, so it didn’t go as well as we hoped,” says Douxie, holding out his hands to stop a fight before it can begin. “We can try again tomorrow, maybe.”

Nimue points threateningly at them. “They better practice.”

“We will, we will,” says Toby. “We can use the training deck of the mothership, right, Krel? Spar with the Blanks?”

“I guess,” says Krel.

Toby nods. “See? We’ll practice.”

“As for you, Steve,” says Douxie, “I have some books for you to look at.”

“Aww, man,” Steve groans.

Douxie pulls several books off the shelf, which is several more than Steve ever wanted to read. He drops them into Steve’s arms. “These are for beginners. Don’t try anything in there, but give them a skim.”

“What? _Don’t_ try anything? That takes all the fun out of it!”

“Magic is dangerous.” Nimue grabs a smaller book and thwaps him on the head with it. Steve yelps and rubs his head. “Messing with it can have lethal consequences for the caster or those around them. Don’t try anything.”

“Alright, alright, I won’t,” Steve agrees.

“It’s getting to dinnertime,” says Douxie. “You guys should probably head home. Be careful. Call me if you get attacked.”

“We don’t have your number,” says Toby.

“Oh,” says Douxie. “Sorry. My bad. Here, give me your phones.”

They all pass him their phones. He lays them on the table and pulls out his own, then taps his and makes an open-handed gesture to the others. All three phones ding. Douxie passes them back to them.

“What?” he says at their looks of disbelief. “Did you think magic and technology don’t mix? It’s the modern world. Of course they do.”

“Thanks for helping us, Nimue,” says Toby brightly. “We’ll see you later.”

“Unfortunately,” she says, but her lips twitch into a smile so she must not hate them that much.

They follow Douxie back upstairs into the shop. He has a customer, which kind of surprises Steve. She waves. Douxie waves back, so maybe she’s a regular.

“Be safe on your way home,” Douxie tells them, glancing warily out the window. Steve follows his eyes and winces. The Green Knight is still there, across the street. It’s like she never even moved.

“We’ll be taking the Vespa,” says Steve. “Hopefully she can’t run that fast.”

Krel and Toby keep their weapons activated as they leave the shop, but the Knight doesn’t move to attack. They climb on the Vespa, Toby in the sidecar again, Krel behind Steve.

“Helmets,” Steve reminds them. It’s especially important since, who knows, the Knight might crash them on purpose. Krel grumbles but puts his on. Toby does the same. Steve snaps his on and revs the engine.

“Drive fast,” says Toby.

“You know it,” says Steve.

When they reach Toby’s house, they seem to have lost the Knight for now. Steve parks his Vespa in the driveway, and they file inside. Toby digs in the freezer for microwavable meals, because they don’t want to risk opening the door for a pizzaman only for it to be the Green Knight.

“I’m going to head upstairs for a minute,” says Steve.

“Kay,” says Toby. “Still looking for dinner.”

Steve nods, then makes his way into Toby’s bedroom and closes the door. He pulls out his phone and calls Aja. He puts it on speaker-phone. It’s an intergalactic call, so it takes a few minutes for her to pick up.

“Steve?”

“Hey, Aja!” he says. “I, uh – just wanted to check in. Say hi.”

“Hi,” she giggles. “How are you? How’s Krel? I haven’t heard from him in a few days.”

“Oh, Krel’s fine,” says Steve. He winces. Fine is relative, but he knows that the second he tells Aja how many times her brother has almost been killed in the past two days, she’ll freak out. “He’s fine, we’re all just.. busy. I’m fine. Too. How are you?”

“Settling back in,” she says. “Being ruler is already a lot more work than I expected… Eli likes it here, at least. And the Akiridions like him.”

Steve chuckles. “Aw, yeah, that must be right up Eli’s alley.”

“I miss you,” she says.

“Miss you, too.” He blows a kiss at the phone, then remembers she can’t see that and coughs awkwardly. He hesitates. “Aja, how did you handle it growing up? Being… different? Special?”

He can tell she’s surprised by the pause that follows. “I… didn’t, really. I ran away a lot. I didn’t want to be different, so I tried not to be.”

“Oh,” says Steve. “And… what if you _had_ been normal your whole life? And then found out you were… different?”

“I don’t know,” she says. “Steve? Is everything okay?”

“Oh! Yeah, yeah, just… this assignment we have for English next year,” Steve lies. He feels bad lying to her, but it sounds like Krel’s right. She needs to focus on being queen, not saving their butts from a crazy knight and another end of the world. “Summer work. It sucks. Uh… what about the bounty hunters? How did you handle them constantly after you and trying to, you know, kill you?”

“By fighting back, of course,” she says. It’s the least helpful thing she could have said, and she seems to sense that. “Just… not letting them get the best of me. I had something to fight for. Mama. Papa. My home. Krel. It helped that I was protecting Krel – I mean, you’ve met him.”

Steve flinches, because he’s been doing an awful job protecting her brother in her place. He laughs weakly. “Yeah. I have.”

“Is this also about your English assignment?”

“Uh, yes,” says Steve. Even he can hear the pitch of his voice shoot up and he winces. It’s going to give him away.

Krel chooses this moment to barge into the room. “Steve! Toby thinks he found something to help with the wizard thing–”

Steve makes a very angry cutthroat motion. Aja says, “Wizard thing?”

Krel’s eyes widen in horror. “Aja? You’re talking to Aja?”

“Yeah, about our _English assignment_,” Steve grits out.

“Oh,” says Krel. “Uh, well. Toby found something about… that… wizard game.”

“Right!” says Steve quickly. “Yes, the – roleplaying game! Wizards and… Warzones! Wizards and Warzones. We’ve been playing this roleplaying game, it’s really, uh, fun, Aja.”

“LARPing,” says Krel. Steve has no idea where he learned that word, but it’s got to be either Eli or Toby and it helps their story so he’s grateful.

“Oh,” says Aja. “That’s fascinating! I didn’t think you’d play something like that, little brother.”

“Yeah, well, I’m pretty bad about it,” says Krel, awkwardly grabbing his braced wrist.

“Uh, but it’s fun anyway,” says Steve. This is a lie. None of this is fun. Being chased by a crazy knight is not fun.

“Yes,” says Krel. “Toby and Aaarrrgghh!!! had an idea. For the game. That’s important. They sent me to get you.”

“Right,” says Steve. “I, uh, gotta go, Aja.”

“That’s alright,” she says. “I’ll talk to you later then, my blond oaf.”

Steve smiles at the phone. “You too, my ninja-kicking angel.”

“Fligshaag,” Krel mutters, shuddering.

Steve hangs up and pockets his phone. “What’s so important you had to interrupt my talk with my girlfriend?”

“_My _sister,” Krel says in annoyance. “And Toby thinks they know where we can find more info on this wizard stuff.”

They run back downstairs to the living room. Toby and Aaarrrgghh!!! are waiting for them, and as they sit, Toby shoves a bowl of microwaved mac and cheese in each of their hands.

“Here, dinner,” he says. “Okay. Aaarrrgghh!!! thinks Blinky might have had a book on wizards in his library in Trollmarket.”

“Okay?” says Steve.

“Might still be there,” Aaarrrgghh!!! rumbles. “Go check.”

Toby nods. “If it’s there, it’s gotta be really old and it might have some info that could help us. Aaarrrgghh!!! even thinks it might give us some clues about this end of the world deal!”

“Really?” says Krel. “That’s fantastic! But… when we went, Trollmarket looked pretty… bad.”

Toby winces. “Yeah. We’re hoping if it’s there it isn’t too damaged to read.”

“Anything is worth a chance,” says Steve. “At this point we’re going off what Douxie says, and he doesn’t have much.”

“Trollmarket it is,” says Krel. He grimaces. “Here’s to no one throwing me off a cliff this time.”

“And no more zombie Gumm-Gumms,” adds Toby.

“Creepy,” says Aaarrrgghh!!!.

“Wait, zombies!?” Steve yelps. “Who said anything about zombies?”

“I’m sure it’s fine,” says Toby. “After we eat, we’ll nap. I’ll set an alarm for midnight and we’ll head out.”

Steve takes a miserable bite of his mac and cheese. All he wanted was a normal summer. Just one normal month in the summer. Just one. At least he doesn’t think the Green Knight can follow them into Trollmarket – that would be a nightmare that he doesn’t want to deal with.


	4. Knight-Time Outings

Toby regrets deciding they’ll leave at midnight. He hates hearing his alarm after a full night’s sleep, and it’s even worse after only a few hours. Steve, already half out of his sleeping bag, shoots an arm out to unconsciously try to turn off the alarm. He only manages to hit Krel in the face. Krel hits him back, which is probably what alerts Steve to the fact it isn’t his alarm or his room. Steve opens his eyes to glare at the ceiling but doesn’t move to get up. Krel curls up tighter and makes a small noise of annoyance.

Toby yawns and stretches and slides out of bed. “Rise and shine, guys.”

For good measure, he flips on the light of the room. Steve yelps and covers his eyes. “A little warning next time!”

“Nooo,” moans Krel, rolling over in his sleeping bag and covering his face with all four arms.

“Yes,” Toby says. “Come on. Trollmarket awaits.”

“I don’t want to go to Trollmarket,” Krel mutters. “I want to sleep.”

“You can sleep later,” says Toby. “Come on, we’re burning moonlight!”

Steve finally sits up and rubs his eyes. He jumps to his feet and almost falls, but Aaarrrgghh!!! reaches out to steady him. Steve pats him on the arm and stifles a yawn. He walks, half-asleep, out of the room. Toby hears water running down the hall, and then Steve returns with a glass of water. The front of his hair is wet, so Toby guesses he’d splashed water in his face to wake up.

“Alright, time to get up.” Steve dumps the glass of water on Krel’s head. The Akiridion shrieks and shoots into a sitting position, holding his sodden arms out. He glares at Steve, water dripping down his face.

“That was uncalled for,” he says.

“Should’ve gotten up the first time,” Steve retorts.

“I’m sure Aja will be glad to know you two are getting along just like brothers,” says Toby. He flips his stealth-mode war-hammer in the air and catches it. “Go dry off or something, I have to change into my armour.”

“You are the most annoying person I have ever met, and I grew up with Aja,” grumbles Krel as he and Steve leave. Toby doesn’t hear Steve’s retort, but he’s sure it’s not the brightest comeback.

Putting on his Trollhunter armour always makes Toby miss Jim again. All this knight stuff is also making him miss Jim, partially because he knows Jim would know what to do. Out of all three of them, Toby’s the veteran. He’s been doing this longer than Steve, and way longer than Krel. He’s not sure he’s ready to be a – a mentor type or something. He’s not doing a very good job at it.

He and Aaarrrgghh!!! meet the others downstairs. Steve is peeling off the wrapper of a granola bar while muttering, “You don’t eat the wrapper, Krel, that’s _bad for you_.”

“Well, how was I supposed to know that?”

Steve rolls his eyes and shoves the granola bar back into Krel’s hands. “Just – eat it like a normal person.”

“I am not a ‘normal person’,” Krel points out. He takes a bite of the granola bar and his face lights up. “But that does taste better.”

“You guys almost ready to go?” says Toby.

“Yep,” says Steve. “So, what is this Trollmarket, anyway?”

“Oh, yeah, you and Eli never got to see it!” Toby realises. “It’s only the awesomest place in the entire world.”

“It really isn’t,” says Krel.

“It _was_,” corrects Toby with a wince. “It got pretty destroyed, what with Gunmar’s invasion and then the Eternal Night. Aaarrrgghh!!! and I are hoping Blinky’s books are still kinda in one piece.”

Steve gives a grim-faced nod. “And… what’s this about zombies?”

“Yeah,” says Krel. “What’s a zombie?”

“Oh, right, that was after Vex threw you into the Deep,” says Toby. “We got attacked by undead Gumm-Gumms. Um. We might run into those again.”

“Klebtastic,” mutters Krel.

“You can say that again,” says Steve.

Krel makes a face. “Why?”

“No – it’s just an expression.”

“Oh. Well, it’s a weird expression.”

Steve sighs and peeks through the blinds into the front yard. They keep the blinds closed most of the time at Toby’s house, just to be safe for Aaarrrgghh!!! when he’s here during the day. Steve flinches back.

“She’s waiting for us,” he says.

“We’ll leave through the back,” says Toby.

They try to be as quiet as they can as they leave the house. Toby is careful to lock the door behind him, although he’s not sure that would stop the Knight if she tried to get in. Despite their attempt at stealth, the Knight leaps over the fence into the backyard.

“Run!” Toby exclaims.

“Got you,” says Aaarrrgghh!!!. He grabs each of them and tosses them onto his back, then takes off into the woods. He’s faster than each of them would probably be on their own, and definitely faster than Toby. Steve and Krel both scream, and Krel hides his face in Aaarrrgghh!!!’s hair. At any other moment, when not in danger, Toby would find their reactions hilarious.

“To the canal!” Toby calls to his wingman. Aaarrrgghh!!! grunts an agreement. Toby clings on with one hand and fishes out the horngazel to be prepared. They don’t have time to look for it once they get there.

Aaarrrgghh!!! comes to an abrupt stop under the bridge. Toby slides off and hands the horngazel to him to open the portal quicker. He turns – the Knight is skidding into the canal now.

“Go, go!” he yells. Aaarrrgghh!!! bounds through, and Toby is quick to follow. The portal closes just before the Knight can reach them, and Toby huffs in relief. Steve shakily climbs off Aaarrrgghh!!!’s back. Krel still hangs on to him with all four hands.

“Are we good?” asks Steve.

“Should be,” says Toby hesitantly. “For a bit. Krel. We’re safe.”

Krel lifts his head and opens one eye. Then, realising they are, in fact, safe inside Trollmarket, he releases his grip and comes down, laughing awkwardly. He pats Aaarrrgghh!!!’s arm. “Uh, thank you for the ride.”

“You’re welcome,” says Aaarrrgghh!!! with a wide grin.

“This is incredible,” says Steve in awe. He takes a few steps onto the crystal staircase. “Aw, man, why haven’t you brought me down here before?”

“Well, by the time we knew you knew about trolls, it was taken over by Gunmar,” says Toby. “And then after that we were _a little busy_ with the Morando issue.”

Krel tightens his grip on his serrator. He looks awkward holding it with one hand in a brace. Steve catches this and grabs his own serrator out of his pocket. “So, like. The zombies. Are they the brain-eating kind?”

“I don’t think so,” says Toby. “But their breath stinks. And they’re Gumm-Gumms. So keep your guard up.”

Steve gulps and nods. They head down the stairs, and as they reach Trollmarket proper, Toby keeps an eye out for any weird movements. The last thing they want is to be caught off guard by an undead Gumm-Gumm.

Blinky’s library is in as bad shape as the rest of Trollmarket. There are books scattered all over the mouldy, dirty floor. Toby picks one up and it’s so soaked that it starts falling to mush in his hands.

“Ugh, fligshaag,” mutters Krel.

“Try to find anything salvageable,” says Toby. He picks out a book from one of the higher shelves that seems to be mostly in one piece and starts flipping through it, only to recognise that, oh, yeah, he can’t read Trollish.

Aaarrrgghh!!! peers over his shoulder. “Cookbook.”

Toby groans and tosses the book away. “Okay, so this might be harder than I thought. Man, I regret not learning Trollish when Jimbo and Claire did.”

“Great, we can’t read these,” says Steve. “How are we supposed to find anything useful!?”

“Look at pictures?” Toby suggests. “If it looks wizard-y, bring it to Aaarrrgghh!!! and he’ll tell you if it’ll help us.”

“Just so you know, I already hate this,” says Steve.

Krel, holding a book upside-down over his head with his first set of arms, uses one of his lower arms to blindly pat Steve on the shoulder. He misses the first time and has to glance sideways to readjust. “You and me both.”

Toby sighs. “Just try to find something.”

Aaarrrgghh!!! chuckles. Toby knows exactly what he finds funny – oh, yeah, _Toby’s_ suddenly the responsible one – and glares at him before returning to searching. They have a lot of books to get through.

“I GIVE UP!”

Toby closes his eyes in frustration at Steve’s yell. The thrown book sails over his head. Aaarrrgghh!!! catches it, glances over it, and drops it.

“We’re never going to find anything in here!” Steve snaps. “These books are in worse condition than the old textbooks at school. There’s no point!”

“Guys, come on,” says Toby. “There’s got to be something.”

“Not here,” says Krel. “Or, if there was, it’s destroyed now. Steve is right, this was pointless.”

Aaarrrgghh!!! rumbles thoughtfully. “Behind the Forge.”

Steve gives him an incredulous glare. “_What_!?”

“Wait, the Hero’s Forge?” says Toby. “Did Blinky keep books there?”

Aaarrrgghh!!! nods. “Some. Important books.”

“Then there might be something there!” Toby exclaims. “And I bet those are in better condition. Come on, guys – we can’t give up yet.”

“We _can_, but you won’t let us,” mutters Krel.

Toby reasons they’re cranky because it’s the middle of the night. If it weren’t, then Krel at least wouldn’t complain so much. Toby hopes. If only Jimbo could see him now, being the _responsible one_. Toby mentally shudders at the very thought of it.

Toby hadn’t paid much attention to the state of the Hero’s Forge last time they were here. It makes him sad to see it like this, after so much time watching Jim train here and even training here himself. Krel seems wary and edges carefully around the footprints to activate the Soothscryer. For a second, Toby is half-tempted to see if Aaarrrgghh!!! or even Krel might be able to activate it and get Kanjigar’s help, but he thinks better of it. At the very least, he does _not_ want to tell Kanjigar that they lost Gaylen’s core.

“Try to find some… secret entrance or something,” says Toby. “Aaarrrgghh!!!, do you know where to look?”

Aaarrrgghh!!! shakes his head. “Sorry.”

“That’s alright, buddy,” says Toby. They make their way to the wall. Toby wishes Blinky would have put a sign or something up. Well, maybe that was counterintuitive to the idea of a secret book hideaway. Why did Blinky even need a secret book hideaway? He runs his hands along the wall, hoping something will be uneven or weird. Unfortunately, everything is uneven because the walls are made of stone. Toby has no idea what he’s going.

“Hey, I found a button!” Steve calls from across the Forge. Aaarrrgghh!!!’s brow lowers and he frowns, but Toby shrugs and starts across the forge to where Steve is. Krel does the way, jumping to one of the platforms and pulling himself up.

Toby sees Steve hit whatever button he’s talking about and – wait.

“Wait,” he says aloud as Steve walks over to them, clearly frustrated that no secret entrance has opened. “Isn’t that–”

“Oh, no,” says Aaarrrgghh!!!.

On cue, the Hero’s Forge starts up, blades flying and platforms turning. Krel screams and scrambles to get a grip on the platform he’s on, but he can’t. Aaarrrgghh!!! catches him and puts him on his feet.

“Did I do that!?” Steve shrieks.

“YES! You did!” Toby yells. He grabs Steve’s arm and leaps backwards. Aaarrrgghh!!! yanks Krel away just in time to avoid getting skewered by a falling axe. Another one comes down several feet behind them.

“This place is a death trap!” Krel cries.

“Yeah, kinda!” Toby agrees. He swings his war-hammer a couple of times and uses it to launch himself towards the button, only for something to come out of absolutely nowhere for him to fly into. He falls to the ground, dazed.

“Wingman!” yells Aaarrrgghh!!!.

Toby rubs his head and sits up. The room is spinning, but that will pass in a minute. Hopefully. If it doesn’t, he might have a problem. Or a concussion. Which would be a problem. He shakes his head to clear it, which doesn’t actually work, and calls, “I’m okay.”

“Have idea!” Aaarrrgghh!!! calls back.

Toby trusts his friend. He doesn’t need to hear more. “Well, then, go for it!”

Then he hears Krel screaming and looks up to see the Akiridion sailing overhead towards the button, much like Toby but a bit higher up. Toby’s a bit jealous that it works for Krel and not him, then sympathetic when Krel hits the ground. At least he has the common sense to activate his serrator shield to break his fall, except he definitely did it with the wrong hand, before Toby can see him grimacing and shaking his braced wrist. Maybe Aaarrrgghh!!!’s idea wasn’t the best idea after all.

“Press the button!” Toby shouts.

“What button?”

“THE ONLY BUTTON!”

“Okay, okay!” Krel shakes his head and pushes the button in. The Forge grinds to a stop. Toby leans back and sighs in relief. The dizziness has started to fade. He’s not sure how Jim did this so often, and he’s amazed and annoyed that the Forge even still works. Why couldn’t it have been broken beyond any chance of turning on? That would make their lives so much easier.

Steve helps him to his feet when he and Aaarrrgghh!!! reach him, and they continue to Krel. Aaarrrgghh!!! gently pats Krel on the head. “Sorry.”

“Don’t throw me again, and you’re forgiven,” says Krel.

“Lightest,” offers Aaarrrgghh!!!. “Easy to throw. Travel far.”

“Just don’t do it again.”

“Okay.”

“Every time I come here I get thrown,” mumbles Krel. Aaarrrgghh!!! looks sheepish. Toby shakes his head.

“Alright,” he says, “from now on, we don’t press buttons without asking Aaarrrgghh!!! first.”

Steve nods meekly, which is something Toby never imagined he’d see. Steve Palchuk? Meek?

“Got it,” he replies.

They skirt around the edge of the Forge together this time, just in case. It still mostly just looks like a wall. Toby’s beginning to wonder if there really is a hidden room, or if Aaarrrgghh!!! is remembering things wrong. Finally, Aaarrrgghh!!! stops and tilts his head with a hum.

“There’s nothing here,” says Steve, fists clenching in frustration.

“Looks like nothing,” says Aaarrrgghh!!!. Then, he places his hand to the wall and it falls away, much like a portal into Trollmarket. He smiles. “Secret.”

“There’s not even a button! How were we supposed to find it?”

“Let it go, Steve,” says Krel.

They walk into the dim room. It’s pretty much only lit by Toby’s helmet’s light and Krel’s natural glow. Toby wonders if they could convince Krel to go to sleep and hope he has one of his weird dreams and lights up like a spotlight again. Would that be rude? It probably would. He decides against it.

There aren’t many books, which is a relief. Toby grabs one and flips through it. It doesn’t have any pictures, so he hands it to Aaarrrgghh!!!, who shakes his head. Krel picks up another and turns it in several directions. Steve frowns, the low light highlighting the furrowing of his brow, and picks up another book.

“This one’s in English,” he says slowly. “_A Brief Recapitulation of Wizard Lore_. Hey! Wizards!”

“Seriously, wizards have one too?” Toby asks in disbelief.

Steve flips through it. “This thing’s got history, spells, everything. I think this is what we’re looking for.”

“Great,” says Krel. “Now can we leave? I feel like every time we come here, we almost die.”

“Par for the course these days,” reasons Toby.

“I don’t know what that means.”

“It means we’re always almost dying.” Steve snaps the book shut. “Let’s get out of here and get some sleep, and we can bring this to Douxie in the morning.”

“It is technically morning,” says Krel.

“The real morning!”

He and Krel start bickering about the definition of morning as they leave. Toby tunes them out to keep an eye out for more zombie Gumm-Gumms. They’ve been lucky so far, and in Toby’s experience, they’ve been _too _lucky. Sure, there’s the mishap with the Hero’s Forge, but they got out of that without even _Krel_ getting injured. Getting ambushed by a zombie wouldn’t be out of character for them in the slightest.

They don’t get ambushed by a zombie. In fact, they make it all the way up the staircase. Sadly, their luck runs out the second Aaarrrgghh!!! opens the portal. Toby should have seen it coming. The Green Knight leaps through, landing a kick to Toby’s chest and sending him stumbling back. Aaarrrgghh!!! roars and hits her away, but the portal closes and they’re trapped. There’s almost no way to buy one of them enough time to reopen the portal.

“Why can’t we escape this crazy b–” Steve cuts off into a scream as he activates his serrator shield to block and attack from the Green Knight. Krel, who despite being incredibly smart can be incredibly dumb when it comes to fighting, runs at her with a holler, serrator sword drawn. She parries his blow and knocks his feet out from under him. He hits the ground with a grunt and activates his shield when the Knight brings her sword down at him.

Toby tries to think back to Nimue’s lesson, but his brain’s too scattered to focus right now, so he nods to Aaarrrgghh!!! instead. He launches Toby into the air, and Toby brings his hammer down at the Knight. He actually manages to hit her in the shoulder and send her stumbling sideways, off the stair she’s on. Toby whoops as she has to regain her balance.

It doesn’t take long. She charges at Steve. He panics and raises his sword to block her, but in the process he drops _A Brief Recapitulation of Wizard Lore_.

“The book!” Krel yelps. Before Toby can stop him, he leaps after the book – right over the edge of the stairs.

“Krel!” Toby dives and catches Krel by the foot. Krel hugs the book to his chest and stares at in terror at the drop. “Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, this is not good.”

Toby is certain the Akiridion hadn’t thought about the fact that a fall from here would _kill him_ until he’d already jumped, and by then it was too late. While Toby’s glad his friend isn’t suicidal, unfortunately, this leaves both of them in a vulnerable position. Aaarrrgghh!!! tries to pull them up, but the Green Knight blocks him, standing between them and their friends and leaving them dangling.

Toby is holding onto the ledge with one hand and Krel with the other. He’s not going to be able to hold on forever, or even much longer. The Green Knight brings her foot down hard on his hand, and he gnashes his teeth together against the pain. Now it’s her heel holding him and Krel in place. If Aaarrrgghh!!! hits her away, Toby and Krel will fall to their deaths.

This is bad.

This is so, _so_ bad.

“We’re going to die!” Krel stammers hysterically. He’s staring towards the ground, where they’ll go splat in a few minutes if someone doesn’t think of something. “I don’t want to die!”

“No, no, no!” Steve exclaims. Toby manages to catch sight of him, and realises with horror the jock is injured, holding a hand to his side where red blooms on his blue shirt. The Knight must have gotten a hit. Toby can’t tell how bad from here. This whole situation just keeps getting better and better, doesn’t it?

An idea hits him.

“Krel!” Toby bites out. “Throw Steve the book!”

Krel meets his eyes. The poor boy looks terrified, so Toby has to hide his own terror so Krel thinks he knows what he’s doing. Someone needs to know what they’re doing, and if Toby has to pretend it’s him, then fine. Krel nods, then swings to give himself the momentum to throw the book. Steve lunges and catches it.

“A spell, Steve!” Toby calls. “Cast a spell!”

“I don’t know how!”

“Figure it out!”

Steve makes panicked noises as he flips through the book. The Knight looks impassive. Toby wonders if she’s smiling behind her helmet, or if she’s stony-face and unemotional. He isn’t sure which he’d prefer. She grinds her foot into his hand, and he can’t hold back the cry.

“Okay, okay!” Steve yells, voice breaking. He stutters out words in a language Toby doesn’t recognise, then repeats them with more confidence, then finally yells them. What results is a concussive blast that knocks the Knight off the edge. She falls, but catches Krel’s arm and jerks to a stop. Krel gasps, whether in shock or pain, Toby isn’t sure. Aaarrrgghh!!! has leapt forward and caught Toby by the wrist before he and Krel and can fall to their dooms.

“Let go, let go!” Krel shakes his hand and uses the other three to try to pry her off of him. This finally works, and the Knight shrieks as she falls. She catches herself on a stair, and struggles to climb onto it. Aaarrrgghh!!! yanks Toby and Krel out and opens the portal.

“Go!” he thunders.

They stumble out of Trollmarket. The portal closes. The Green Knight is trapped. Toby falls to his knees, panting, and clutches his hand. Oh, he hopes nothing is broken. Steve and Krel both drop as well.

“Steve!” exclaims Krel as the jock wavers and nearly collapses completely to the ground. Toby’s attention jerks to Steve in horror as Krel steadies him. “What – what is this red stuff?”

“It’s blood, buttsnack,” Steve snaps.

Krel’s eyes widen. “Seklos and Gaylen.”

“I’m okay,” Steve says. “It’s not deep. Just – a flesh wound.”

“I think we all need to go see Dr. Lake,” says Toby. Dr. L will know what to do, and how badly they’re all hurt. He tries to flex his hand, but that hurts, so he decides against it. Krel might be hurt and not saying anything. Steve seems to be the worst off, bleeding from an injury Toby can’t see with the dark and the blood on his shirt. “Thanks, Steve. For the save.”

“Don’t mention it,” Steve mumbles, looking away.

“Come on,” says Aaarrrgghh!!!. He scoops Steve into his arms. Steve makes a half-hearted attempt at a protest, and that alone worries Toby more than anything else. Steve would never stand to be carried normally. Toby stands, then helps Krel to his feet. He glances back at the blank concrete and shudders. Hopefully, that will hold her for a while. They can’t afford to be attacked again any time soon.

“Well, the good news is, it’s not that deep,” Dr. Lake says as she looks over Steve’s injury. He sits on the Lakes’ counter awkwardly, shirt off so Dr. L can clean and fix up his wound. “I’d prefer you go to the hospital for stitches.”

“I’d rather not,” says Steve warily.

“I figured,” says Dr. Lake. “I can take care of it. Toby? Krel? Why don’t you go wait in the living room?”

“Why?” protests Krel.

Toby guides him away. “Trust me, we don’t want to be in here is Dr. L is giving him stitches.”

“What’s stitches?”

“Not fun,” says Toby. “Trust me, you don’t want to know.”

He sits Krel down on the couch, then sits next to him. The full moon’s glow filters in through the blinds. It’s cramped in the living room, what with the several cribs in there. Toby knows Strickler and Dr. Lake are trying to figure out how to get the babies adopted, but for now they’ve been taking care of most of them. And there’s a lot of them. Somehow, the babies stay asleep. Toby doesn’t know much about babies, but he knows that’s a miracle.

“How’s your hand?” Krel asks in a hushed voice.

“We’ll see,” says Toby. “I think I’m up next with Dr. L. Then you.”

“I’m fine,” says Krel. “Sore. That was scary.”

“Yeah, man,” Toby mumbles. “Has anyone ever told you you’re _stupid_?”

Krel looks offended. “No one has ever said that to me in my entire life.”

“Well, you are,” says Toby. “In the same way Jim’s stupid. You have to look before you leap. _Literally_.”

Krel shrinks back. “We need the book.”

“We could have gone downstairs for it,” Toby points out. “The book would be okay from a fall like that. You’d be dead. Like, super dead. You know the pancakes Lucy makes? That’d be you.”

“Thank you for that image,” Krel says with a grimace.

“I like you better in non-pancake form,” says Toby, just to try to drive the point home.

“I wouldn’t be a pancake, anyway,” says Krel. “I’d just be a core.”

Toby frowns at him. “What do you mean?”

Krel puts a hand to his chest. “Akiridions can survive a lot. You saw my parents in the pod when they were almost completely fixed. When we first got to Earth, all we had was their cores. As long as our cores remain intact, we can survive almost anything.”

“And… if they don’t?”

“Then we’re dead,” says Krel bluntly. “A fall like that would probably do it. But I wouldn’t be a pancake.”

Toby thinks Krel might be trying to be reassuring, but it doesn’t really help. Krel seems to sense that, and he lowers his hands to his lap and stares at them self-consciously.

“Well,” says Toby shakily. “I’m just glad we’re all okay.”

“Relatively,” says Krel.

“Relatively,” Toby repeats in agreement.

They fall silent. A few moments later, Dr. Lake walks in with a thin smile. “Hey, Toby. Your turn.”

Steve follows her. His torso is covered in gauze and bandages, and he looks paler than usual, but Toby knows Dr. L wouldn’t let him go if he wasn’t going to be okay. He lets Steve take his spot on the couch.

“You good?” he asks.

“Yep,” Steve manages. “I never want stitches again, though.”

“I still don’t understand. What are stitches?”

Steve must tell him, because as Toby and Dr. Lake reach the kitchen, he hears Krel yell from the other room, “What!? That’s barbaric!” This is of course followed by the crying of several babies. Toby can imagine Steve and Krel both panicking at this point.

Dr. Lake covers her hand with a mouth and laughs weakly. “I guess it would be barbaric to an alien.”

“In his defence, I think he’d never seen blood in his life before coming to Earth,” says Toby.

“Someone needs to get me a book on Akiridion medicine at the rate you’re bringing that boy to me,” she says, before switching back to doctor mode. “Alright. Let’s see that hand of yours.”

Toby’s hand is not broken, much to his relief, just badly bruised. Toby is told to ice it regularly and elevate it, and he’s told to use Advil for the pain. Krel is also fine. Some strain on his shoulder from the Knight grabbing him as she fell, but nothing that will even be sore in a few days. Steve is undoubtedly hurt the worst this time.

They drop their stuff off at Steve’s place on the way to Douxie’s. The Knight may be trapped, but they have no idea how long that will last. It’s better to play it safe. They’re early enough that Steve’s mom and Coach are both asleep, much to Steve’s relief. It gives him time to grab a new shirt. He disposes of his bloody one in a dumpster on the way to the magic shop.

Douxie is expecting them this time. He waves as they walk in.

“Morning, guys,” he says.

“We trapped the Green Knight in Trollmarket,” says Steve. “And we’ve had a terrible few hours, so I hope this book is worth it.”

Toby pulls _A Brief Recapitulation of Wizard Lore _out of his backpack and offers it to Douxie. His eyes widen and he grabs it out Toby’s hands to inspect it closer. “This has been lost for centuries!”

Toby laughs awkwardly. “Turns out Blinky had it in Trollmarket. Funny coincidence.”

“Oh, my uncle is going to be thrilled when he finds out you brought this book,” Douxie says. “And you trapped the Green Knight?”

“We almost died, but yeah,” says Krel.

“This is fantastic news,” Douxie exclaims. Then he looks between them in worry. “Are you guys okay?”

“Steve had to go through a human healing torture ritual,” says Krel matter-of-factly. Douxie’s eyebrows shoot up.

“He means stitches,” says Steve before Douxie can interpret that badly. He glares at Krel. “I told you it’s not torture.”

“It sounds like torture,” says Krel.

“Stitches, that’s not good.” Douxie eyes them anxiously, as if looking for blood on their clothes. He can’t find it. “Well. I talked to my uncle, and he said he’d be happy to teach you magic.”

“Oh, that’s great news,” exclaims Steve. “Cause, uh, when I used magic in Trollmarket it took me three tries to get it right.”

“Still saved our lives,” says Krel.

“I got lucky,” says Steve sourly.

Douxie nods. “He did. Magic is dangerous. But all’s well that ends well. You three are safe and the Green Knight is trapped.”

“For now,” says Toby.

“For now is better than not at all.” Douxie tucks the book under his arm and smiles. “Come on. You look like you could use a good, hearty breakfast. We’ll go out. On me.”

Well. They can’t say no to that.

As they leave the shop, Toby does a paranoid glance around the area just in case. He thinks the Green Knight won’t get out any time soon, but he’s been wrong about the safety of Trollmarket before. She’ll be back. He only hopes he and his friends will be ready when she is.


	5. Extra-Terrestrial Visitors of the Murderous Kind

There’s nothing weirder, Krel decides, then seeing a teacher outside of school. Weirdest of all is eating breakfast with a teacher, especially when that teacher is your gym coach and your friend’s… father? Krel is kind of unclear on that part.

Coach Lawrence slides a glass of brown goop in front of Krel. He shoves a similar pink one in front of Toby, and an off-white one for Steve. Krel tries to hide his disgust as he moves the straw around and leaves a slowly filling gap in its place.

“Protein shakes!” Coach declares. Krel has decided that human names are weird, but he’s also decided not to say that out loud in case someone gets offended. “You’re growing boys! Gotta build your muscles! Eh, especially you, Tarron.”

“Gee, thanks,” says Krel flatly.

Coach pats him on the head. Toby takes a tentative sip of his, then his face lights up and he starts drinking with fervour. Steve drags his glass to him. “Thanks, Dad. Coach! Coach-Dad!”

“I do not understand,” says Krel when Coach mumbles something about omelettes and leaves the room. “Is Coach Lawrence your father or not?”

Steve’s cheeks turn pink, an amusing human affliction that Krel’s learned by now is called blushing and happens when humans are embarrassed. “He’s dating my mom. I dunno. He’s not my biological dad.”

“I think your relationship is cute,” says Toby. Steve gives him a death glare and he shrinks. “Uh, in a totally manly way.”

“Shut up, Domzalski,” mutters Steve.

Krel glances towards Steve’s kitchen, then lowers his voice. “So, what’s the plan? I hate to say it, but Trollmarket’s not going to hold the Green Knight for long.”

“We have to keep training to be ready,” says Toby. Then he pauses and crinkles his nose. “Oh, man, I sound like Jimbo.”

“I feel like your Jimbo was much better at this than we are,” Krel says. He stirs his protein shake, then takes a sip. It’s not as awful as it looks, and it’d be rude not to drink it, so he does.

“Kids!” yells Coach from the other room. “Whaddya want in your omelettes?”

“Bacon and cheese,” calls Steve.

“Uh, mushrooms, bacon… cheese?” Toby says.

“What is an omelette?” Krel asks.

Steve opens his mouth to explain, then shakes his head and adds to Coach, “Krel will have the same as me!”

“I can’t wait to tell Nimue how we kicked the Green Knight’s butt yesterday,” says Toby.

“We didn’t,” says Krel. “We got lucky. And hurt. We all got hurt.”

Steve’s eyes widen and he draws his hand rapidly across his neck twice. “Ix-nay on the urt-hay in front of Coach.”

Krel has no idea what that’s supposed to mean. “What is an ix-nay and an urt-hay? Anyway, I’m not a soolian. Your not-dad is in the other room.”

“And he’ll hear you,” hisses Steve.

“You shouldn’t keep it a secret,” says Toby. “Like, I get why Krel isn’t telling Aja, but it isn’t like Coach is busy. Trust me, keeping this kind of stuff a secret from parents doesn’t work very well. I’ve already told Nana.”

“I haven’t even had the chance to explain the Creepslayerz thing to him,” Steve mutters. “How am I supposed to explain all this?”

“You should at least tell him about, you know, the end of the world and the knights, if not the magic,” says Toby.

“Maybe,” says Steve.

Coach chooses that moment to walk back in with two plates. He puts one in front of Steve and the other in front of Krel. “Got yours coming right up, Domzalski.”

“Thanks, Coach,” says Toby.

Krel pokes his – omelette? – with a fork. He takes a bite. It tastes good, to his mild surprise. He never expected Coach to be able to cook. Coach clears his throat.

“You know you can tell me anything, Steve,” he says earnestly. “If there’s – anything on your mind.”

Steve looks away. “Yeah, sure, Coach. I know.”

Coach sighs and leaves the room. Krel guesses he heard most if not all of their conversation. Steve focuses his attention on his omelette. Krel shrugs and continues eating his. It’s not his business whether Steve tells his not-dad. Anyway, he has no right to tell Steve who to tell about this, since Krel isn’t telling any of his family back home.

“Coach is like a dad to me,” Steve tells them, loud enough that there’s no way Coach won’t hear it. “That’s why I can’t tell him about this. I don’t want him to get hurt.”

“We understand,” Krel says. Toby nods.

“I hope he does,” Steve mumbles.

After breakfast, they start for Douxie’s. They walk, because it might be their only chance to walk safely for a while. Once the Knight gets out again, the Vespa will be the safest choice. Krel still isn’t sure how he feels about the Vespa or Steve’s driving. He thinks he’d feel safer if he got to drive instead.

“So we need to make it seem like we totally didn’t get our butts kicked,” says Toby. “We need to at least look competent.”

“Why?” says Krel. “So we can look stupid when it turns out we really aren’t competent? Because we’re not.”

“Fake it till you make it!” Toby enthuses.

“That sounds like a terrible idea.”

Toby preens. “That’s how I became a director, my dear DJ Kleb.”

“We should make another movie,” says Steve. “This time I can be the star. Krel can have a cameo.”

“No way,” Krel scoffs. “If anything, you would have the cam-i-oh. We have to make the prequel for _Kleb or Alive_.”

“Actually, we have to do the sequels first,” says Toby. “We’ll see if there’s room for you, Steve. Hey, maybe you can be DJ Kleb’s sidekick.”

“Sidekick!”

“Oh, I like the sound of that.”

Toby laughs. Krel shoots Steve a teasing grin, and his friend scowls at him. Krel knows it’s mostly joking. He’s about to add to the fire, because it’s fun, when he hears the sound of a blaster-shot. He has a split second to panic when Steve’s eyes widen and he yanks Krel to his chest and dives. The shot hits where they had been walking as Krel and Steve land in the grass. Toby has stumbled into the street.

“Are you okay?” Steve asks.

“Seklos and Gaylen!” Krel manages. “Someone just shot at us!”

A person lands on the sidewalk. They have an exosuit Krel recognises as industry standard for the quadrant of the galaxy Akiridion-5 is in – not Akiridion but the kind of thing you could buy at an unaffiliated outpost nearby. The suit covers most of their body, their long limbs and their thin tail, but Krel can see curled antennae poking out of the top. They adjust their blaster and tap the side of their helmet. The screen vanishes and the life-form smiles.

“Correction,” they say. “I shot at you, Krel Tarron.”

“Bad alien!” Toby squeaks.

“Not another bounty hunter,” Krel groans. He waves his hands in front of him. “Morando is dead! There’s no more bounty!”

“Oh, I’m sure plenty of people would pay me good money for your head on a pike, _your highness_,” the bounty hunter replaces the screen of their helmet and aims their blaster. “I’ll settle for your core.”

“We should have taken the Vespa!” Steve cries.

“Run!” Krel exclaims. There’s no way they’ll be able to fight off a bounty hunter right now, not when all three of them are still injured from yesterday night’s fight with the Green Knight. Steve’s not even supposed to be running according to Barbara, but they don’t have much of a choice. The bounty hunter fires several shots after them as they run. Krel turns and tries to fire back shots with his serrator, but she leaps and lands in front of them.

“Oh, no,” manages Toby. The bounty hunter’s hand shoots out and grabs Krel by the neck – why is it always his neck!? – and drags him away from his friends.

Steve’s face twists into protective fury. “Hey! Don’t touch him!”

He whips out his own serrator, activates it as a sword, and runs at the bounty hunter. He brings it down on their arm, probably just trying to get them to let Krel go, but manages to cut clean through the thin limb. Krel stumbles away from the detached arm. Steve looks sick.

“Oh my gosh,” Toby blurts. “You just cut off its arm!”

“I didn’t mean to!” Steve shrieks.

The bounty hunter growls and holds out the upper half of their arm. There’s a disgusting squelching noise, and a new arm grows from the bloody stump. The three of them watch in horrified awe. Steve turns and retches in the bushes.

“Nice try,” the bounty hunter says.

“Go, go, go!” yells Toby. They sprint across the street. Krel can see the magic shop just ahead. If they get there, Douxie can put up the magic force-field and they’ll be safe.

Several more blaster shots just barely miss them. They shove the doors open and run inside the shop and barricade the entrance.

“DOUXIE!” Krel shouts. “HELP!”

“Get back!” snaps a voice that most definitely does not belong to Douxie. Krel and his friends scramble away from the door as a blond man in a t-shirt and jeans storms to the door and uses his finger to draw a symbol on the glass. It lights up, and then the barrier outside lights up. The bounty hunter leaps right into it and hisses.

“What in the name of Camelot is _that_?” the man bites out, green eyes darting between them. They stare at him with wide eyes. Steve is clutching his side. Toby is leaning on his knees. The man sighs. “Don’t tell me. You’re Douxie’s new friends.”

They nod mutely.

“Come downstairs,” he says. They follow him into the library. He walks past Archie and gives the cat a scratch on the head, then puts a hand to the back wall. It sinks into the floor to reveal another room.

“How many secret doors are there here?” Steve whispers to Krel and Toby.

“Only three,” calls the man. “Come along.”

The room looks like a chemistry lab, except Krel’s never been in a chemistry lab that had things like devil’s nettle and sorcerer’s violet. Usually labs have proper chemicals in them. The man grabs several bottles of the oddly named ingredients and sets them on a table, then sets a large pot on a burner.

“Extra-terrestrials,” he grumbles. “When I was your age, we _never_ had issues with extra-terrestrials. Really is the end times.”

“Sorry?” says Krel.

The man glances at him. “You must be Krel, then. Allergic to any herbs?”

“Uh…”

“You wouldn’t know, huh?” mutters the man. He waves a hand at Krel and mumbles something. Words appear in front of him, and Krel reaches out to touch them. They vanish, but the man nods. “Right, right. Good.”

“Who are you, exactly?” asks Toby. “No offence.”

“Name’s Mort,” the man says. “Douxie’s probably mentioned me. I’m his uncle.”

“You don’t look anything like Douxie,” scoffs Steve. “You look more like _me_ than like Douxie.”

“I’m not really his uncle by blood,” says Mort. “I just took him in after his parents – well, you know.”

Toby blinks. Krel and Steve exchange surprised looks.

“Douxie’s parents died?” Toby finally asks when neither of them do.

“He hasn’t told you yet?” Mort asks. They shake their heads. Mort sighs and turns back to whatever he’s making, dumping a spoonful of one of the ingredients into the pot. “Yeah. I’ve raised him practically since he was a baby. His mum and dad – well, official story is that they died in a gas leak accident.”

“The official story?” Toby prompts slowly.

“The unofficial story – that is, the true one – is that they were murdered.” Mort punctuates this by dropping a leaf in the pot. Purple flames flare up. Krel and his friends flinch back, but Mort is unaffected. “As far as wizarding neighbourhoods go, they lived in a pretty bad one. I knew his dad, so I took him in and left for the States. Not the best country out there, but, hey. Arcadia’s bursting with magical energy. Great place to start a shop. Always wanted a shop.”

“Poor Douxie,” mumbles Toby. “I know what it’s like to grow up with dead parents.”

Mort glances at him. “I’m sorry to hear that.”

“I didn’t know that,” Krel says softly. Why didn’t he know that? He knows Toby lives with his grandmother, with no parents in sight. He should have known that.

Toby shrugs. “I hadn’t told you yet. They went on a cruise when I was two and, uh, didn’t make it back.”

Krel’s not sure what to say, so he just puts a hand on his friend’s shoulder. Toby offers him a smile.

“Well, on that depressing note.” Mort waves a hand over the pot, then snaps at Krel. “Shirt off, please, Krel.”

“Uh, why?”

“The potion needs skin to work correctly, child,” he says.

“Potion?”

“Oh my gosh!” Toby exclaims. “Are you going to turn Krel into a toad?”

“What!?” Krel yelps.

“What? No, why would I – of course I’m not going to turn him into a _toad_,” says Mort. “This is an advanced cloaking spell designed to hide his core. You _are_ Akiridion, yes? If I have that wrong I’m going to need to start all over.”

“I am Akiridion,” Krel confirms warily. “Hide my core?”

“Well, presumably that’s how this… creature found you,” says Mort. “Akiridion life cores are far too easy to track.”

“How does he know that?” Toby murmurs in awe.

“I’m well-read,” says Mort. “Shirt, please. Hop to it before the potion gets cold.”

Krel reasons that Douxie trusts him, so that should be reason enough for Krel to trust him, and he tugs off his t-shirt. Mort dips his fingers in the potion and traces a symbol onto Krel’s chest, right above his core, hidden beneath the skin of his human disguise. Or something. Krel doesn’t know exactly how the human disguise works with his core. The potion is hot on his skin, and as Krel watches, the glowing purple liquid seeps into his skin and disappears, leaving a faint violet mark not unlike a bruise.

“Creepy,” says Steve.

“This _should_ last a fortnight, if you need it that long,” Mort says. “If you need it longer, I’ll have to redo it, but that should give you enough time to ensure that some rumours get out that you’ve left the planet or something. As for this creature… well, it’s already found you, but hopefully it doesn’t know where you live.”

Krel pulls his shirt back on. “I hope not.”

“Maybe we should call Aja and make sure Morando’s bounty has been taken off the intergalactic black market or whatever,” says Steve.

As much as Krel doesn’t want to call his sister for help, he has to admit Steve has a point. “Alright. We can do that tonight.”

“In the meantime,” says Mort. “I believe Nimue wanted to see the two of you, Toby, Krel. As for you, Steve, I’d like to chat with you about your training.”

Steve stands up straighter. Toby gives Krel a distressed look that probably mirrors Krel’s own. Nimue wanting to see them cannot be a good thing.

“She did say ASAP,” adds Mort. “Best not to keep the lady waiting. She can and will take it out on you in training.”

“Klebtastic,” Krel mutters.

Training with Nimue went as well as Krel had expected. She did not believe them when they tried to tell her how well they did against the Green Knight in Trollmarket. Then she proceeded to pummel them in training. Krel is sore all over and he hates it. There’s a reason he didn’t get into combat training on Akiridion-5.

They’re staying at Krel’s house tonight, partially because it’ll be easier to call Aja from there and partially because apparently it’s his turn on the rotation Toby has set up. Mort sneaks them out through the back and Toby leads them into the sewers to avoid the bounty hunter.

“It’s not so bad,” he says. Steve has pulled his shirt up to cover his nose. Krel is used to Stuart by now, so he isn’t too bothered. “Aaarrrgghh!!! and I travel this way all the time during the day.”

“Makes sense,” says Krel. He still thinks it’s unfortunate that trolls can’t go in sunlight.

Toby uses his hammer to levitate to the manhole cover. He lifts it, looks around, then climbs out and waves his hand for Steve and Krel to join him. Then, evidently realising neither Krel nor Steve have something to levitate with, drops his war-hammer back in for them. They dart into Krel’s house and into the mothership as quickly as possible. Krel makes sure to lock it behind them. The last thing he wants is for the bounty hunter to attack them in the middle of the night.

“Come on,” he says. “Let’s go call my sister.”

She picks up almost immediately after he calls her, grinning brightly at him through the screen. “Little brother! And Steve and Toby!”

“Uh, hi, Aja,” says Krel.

She points at him accusingly. “You haven’t been calling.”

“I’ve been, uh, busy,” he says, which isn’t actually a lie, it just leaves out the truth he doesn’t want her to know.

Her eyes land on his brace and her brow furrows. “What is that on your arm?”

Krel winces. “It’s a brace. I, uh, hurt my wrist. I – tripped?”

“He’s really clumsy,” Toby adds. “Which – you probably know. Because you grew up with him.”

She still looks sceptical, but she accepts the lie. “I leave you alone for less than a parson and you’re already hurt.”

Krel laughs awkwardly. “You know, accidents happen. But that’s not why I’m calling.”

“Did you make sure the bounty was taken off of you and Krel?” Toby asks.

“Of course,” says Aja.

“Are you sure?” asks Steve. “Not that we doubt you! But we got attacked this morning by a bounty hunter after Krel.”

Aja gasps. “Are you all okay?”

“We’re fine,” says Krel. “We didn’t get hurt.”

“By the bounty hunter,” Steve mutters under his breath.

“What was that?” says Aja.

“Nothing!” Steve exclaims. “Nothing, nothing at all.”

“What did the bounty hunter look like?” Aja asks. “I’ll see if I can find any information on them.”

“Uh, tall,” says Toby. “Antennae. Steve cut off its arm and its arm grew back.”

“Steve cut off their arm!?”

“It was an accident!”

“Well, limb generation definitely narrows it down,” says Aja. “Let’s see… aha. Is this the one?”

She swipes an image onto the screen for them. Krel nods. “That’s the one.”

“Her name’s Kyniga,” says Aja. “She’s a well-known Anaptian bounty hunter. Looks like she’s late to the party. Didn’t you tell her there’s no bounty?”

“Uh, she said plenty of people would pay her good money for my head,” says Krel with a grimace, “but she’ll settle for my core.”

“Lively,” mutters Aja. “Do you want me to come to Earth?”

“No, no,” says Krel. “You have your… queen stuff.”

“Do you want me to send Varvatos or Zadra?”

Krel does actually think about this, but Varvatos or Zadra would surely tell Aja about the Green Knight. “That’s alright. We can handle it.”

“Don’t worry, my warrior princess,” says Steve, trying his best to look cool. Krel thinks he looks stupid. “Krel’s got a Creepslayer and Trollhunter looking after him. We won’t let him get hurt.”

“Again,” says Toby.

“Exactly!”

“Everything is under control,” Krel insists. “You worry too much, Aja. It’s just one bounty hunter.”

“It only takes one bounty hunter to kill you,” says Aja.

“We’ve got this, Aja,” says Steve. “Promise.”

“If you insist.” Aja swipes the image of the bounty hunter away. “Just be careful.”

“We will,” says Krel. “Tell Eli we say hello.”

She nods. “Be safe.”

The screen flickers dark, then glitches and returns to normal. Krel sighs.

“While we’re here I should start fixing things up.” He finally turns off the transduction effect and stretches his arms. “It would be nice to have at least _some_ things working.”

“We can help!” Toby says excitedly. “Oh, man, I’ve always wanted to help fix an alien spaceship!”

Krel laughs. “Well, you can’t make it worse. Come on.”

They don’t get a lot done on the ship before they decide to get some sleep. It’s been a long day – which, really, all the days have felt incredibly long and full of violence since Aja left. Krel had been hoping they’d get at least one free day, what with the Green Knight trapped in Trollmarket, but unfortunately, the universe hates him.

Krel has _another _dream that night – the first in a couple of days. It’s the same as always. Frantically searching in the forest, finding the thing, waking up. The waking up part is the only thing different, but that’s because Steve whacks him with a pillow and grumbles that he couldn’t sleep with the light.

They leave for Douxie’s – Mort’s? – after breakfast. Krel’s somewhat glad that Lucy has forgone the whole bacon and eggs thing for pancakes, which at least fall off the ceiling. Krel is still eating his last pancake as they walk.

“So Mort’s going to train you?” Toby asks Steve.

“Yep,” he says. “We start Monday. Haha, _I _am going to be _a wizard_.”

“Aren’t you already a wizard?” says Krel. “You have the magic. Is a wizard only a trained magic user?”

Steve frowns. “You know, I don’t actually know.”

“Are you going to get a familiar?” Toby exclaims. “Your own talking cat!”

“Mom is allergic to cats,” says Steve. “I can’t get a cat.”

“Get a hypoallergenic talking cat,” offers Toby. “One of those hairless kinds.”

Steve crinkles his nose. “I don’t think I want a cat, anyway. I’d rather have a dog familiar.”

“Well, don’t tell that to Archie,” says Toby. “Would having a familiar make you a Disney princess?”

Krel tries to imagine Steve with a familiar, but he can only think of how many times Luug would bowl him over, which just makes him laugh. Steve rolls his eyes. “Yeah, yeah, laugh it up. Hey – you don’t even know what a Disney princess is!”

“No,” admits Krel, “but I just can’t picture you with a small, talking animal following you around.”

“We’ll have to show you all the human culture you’ve missed out on,” says Toby. “After we save the world, of course.”

“As long as there isn’t another apocalypse waiting after this one,” adds Steve.

Toby grimaces. “We’re getting like an apocalypse a month at this rate.”

“You know, most planets only get one apocalypse and then they’re destroyed,” Krel points out. “At least Earth is still here.”

“There’s the optimism we need!” Toby says.

Krel shakes his head and laughs again. Conversations like these remind him why he stayed on Earth with his friends. He’s never had _friends_ before. He didn’t know how much he was missing.

Then, to ruin the beautiful morning, a blaster shot hits in front of them, leaving a scorch mark on the ground.

“Not again,” Krel groans.

They spin around to face the bounty hunter – what did Aja call her? Kyniga. She stalks forward calmly, as if she knows all three of them stand no chance against her. She’s right, of course, but they should at least pretend they think they can beat her. Krel activates his serrator. Beside him, Steve does the same and Toby activates his war-hammer.

“It’ll be a pity if I must kill your puny human protectors,” says Kyniga. “Such a pitiful race.”

“Hey!” Steve snaps. “We’re not pitiful! Or puny!”

“Compared to an Anaptian, you really are,” Krel admits.

“Alright, but we beat Gunmar _and_ we beat Morando, who were both significantly larger than us,” Toby boasts. “You don’t stand a chance, lady!”

She chuckles lowly. “We’ll see about that.”

She holsters her blaster and pulls out twin swords instead. Krel and his friends have proven they can’t fight a crazy woman with one sword, let alone two, so he imagines this is going to end terribly. She runs at them, and Krel and Toby dive out of the way. Steve raises his serrator shield and skids backwards.

“Steve, you’re injured!” Toby yells as a reminder.

“So?” Steve grunts. “I’m still going to beat her! I promised Aja I’d protect Krel.”

“You have to be kidding me,” says Krel.

Kyniga leaps forward and whips one of her sword towards Steve’s legs. Krel darts forward the moment he sees her move and tackles Steve out of the way. Toby charges at her with a holler as Krel and Steve get back to their feet.

“I had her!”

“No, you didn’t!”

Toby screams and goes flying over their heads into a shop window. It shatters and he falls right through. Krel winces. That’s got to hurt. Then, before he can react, Steve is in front of him, holding back the bounty hunter’s swords with his own.

“Run!” Steve snaps. “She’s after _you_! Get to the shop!”

Krel doesn’t want to leave his friends alone, but Steve’s right. He nods, and takes off down the street, forcing himself not to look back. He just needs to make it to the shop and then they can figure out a plan.

Not looking back is a mistake. Assuming the sound of a blaster firing was from Steve fighting Kyniga is also a mistake. The blast hits him in the back. His vision goes dark, and when it returns, he’s lying on the sidewalk, dazed. He tries to push himself to his feet, but the secton he moves his shoulders, pain erupts on his back – where the blast hit, probably – and he collapses back to the sidewalk.

Someone picks him up. Fuzzy as his head is, it takes him several sectons to realise it’s the bounty hunter and not any of his friends.

“Oh, you will pay nicely,” purrs Kyniga.

Oh, he shouldn’t have told Aja they had it handled. They clearly do not have it handled. Krel tries to find the energy to fight back to release himself, but every movement sends burning spikes of pain to the wound on his back. Why hadn’t he thought to de-activate the transduction effect before the fight? This human body is too fragile.

“Let him go!” Toby yells. Krel sees the blurry form of his friend rocketing towards them when the bounty hunter sighs and shrugs Krel off her shoulder to the ground. Krel gasps at the contact of the rough cement with his back, but it’s brief and she pulls him to his feet. Then there’s a blaster against his head. Toby stops and lands, stumbling, in front of them. Steve skids to a stop beside him.

“I’m sure you don’t want to _see_ your friend die,” she says. “Who knows? Attack me again and I’ll kill him now, but maybe if you leave me be, whoever I sell him to will let him live.”

“We’re not going to let you sell our friend!” Steve snaps. Krel isn’t sure they can stop her. Steve’s eyes dart to something behind them. He smiles. “You always leave your back exposed like that?”

“What?” Kyniga cuts herself off with a sharp gasp. Krel hears Mort’s deep voice rumble something in another language, and Kyniga’s grip on Krel vanishes and she drops. Krel wavers and nearly falls, but Mort catches him and turns him around.

“Hey, hey, look at me,” he says. Krel tries to make eye contact, but Mort’s face is indistinct and darkness is invading the corners of Krel’s vision. “Krel. Stay awake for me. _Krel_.”

Krel tries his best to fight his fading consciousness, blinking rapidly and glaring to try to get a sharper image of Mort in front of him. Mort says something else that Krel doesn’t process.

“Don’t tell Aja,” he manages, before giving in and letting the world go black.

Krel wakes up to purring. He blinks groggily awake and sits up, doing his best not disturb Archie, curled up against his side on the unfamiliar bed. He’d been lying on his stomach, which he almost never does of his own volition because it’s uncomfortable and weird to sleep like that. 

“Krel! You’re awake!” Toby exclaims. Krel looks over to see Toby turn in the chair from the desk at the other side of the room.

“What? He is?” Steve’s voice says from the floor. He pulls himself to his feet using the edge of the bed. “Hey! He is!”

“How long was I out?” Krel asks warily.

“Only a few hours,” says Toby. “Mort fixed you up with magic! Mostly.”

Krel shifts – he can feel the _mostly_ in the way his back stings with the movement, but it’s not nearly as bad as he remembers. His chest feels oddly constricted, and a peek under his shirt explains it. There are bandages wrapped around his torso, probably for whatever injury he has on his back from the blaster.

“Welcome back to the land of the living, Krel.” Mort walks in the door with a cup of water that he sets on the bedside table. “Glad to see you awake.”

“Thanks for saving me,” says Krel. “And, uh, fixing me.”

“Anytime,” says Mort. “And you’ll still want to take it easy for a little bit. I may be fairly good at healing burns, but I’m still no healer.”

Krel nods. “What happened to Kyniga? The bounty hunter?”

“Got her tied up downstairs,” says Mort. “Figured you’d know what to do with her.”

“I guess send her to Akiridion-5,” says Krel. “Let Aja figure it out.”

Steve and Toby exchange grimaces.

“Here’s to _not_ telling Aja Krel got shot,” says Steve. Krel and Toby nod emphatically.

“Boys,” says Mort chidingly. His poorly hidden smile gives him away. “I know you’re scared of Queen Aja, but don’t you think it’s important for her to know?”

“My sister does _not_ need to know I was shot,” says Krel. “Or almost captured. As far as she needs to know, you helped us capture the bounty hunter and we had it under control the whole time.”

“She would kill me and Toby,” says Steve. His face sinks into horror. “She might even break up with me. I promised to protect her little brother and failed. Oh, man, what if she breaks up with me?”

“She’s not going to ‘break up’ with you,” Krel scoffs. He pauses. “Well. Over this, maybe. But since we’re not telling her, she won’t.”

Mort shakes his head. “Alright, do what you want. Douxie’s bringing lunch back from Benoit’s. I’ll text him to make sure he knows Krel’s awake. When you feel up to it, I’ll drive you wherever it is you need to go to get the bounty hunter to your planet.”

“Thank you,” says Krel.

Mort nods and leaves the room again. Archie yawns, relocates to Krel’s lap, and immediately goes back to sleep. Toby rolls his chair over closer to Krel, and Steve sits on the bed with him. He points at Krel threateningly.

“If you don’t stop almost dying, I’m going to kill you myself, buttsnack,” he says, which Krel is pretty sure is Steve-talk for, “Please keep yourself safer.”

“It’s your turn next,” Krel jokes.

“Exactly!” Then Steve realises what he said. “No! It’s no one’s turn next!”

Krel and Toby both laugh. Steve makes a frustrated noise, which only serves to make them laugh harder, until Archie opens one eye to glare at Krel and says, “Will you please stop that so I can sleep? Thank you.”

Krel opens his mouth to respond, but the cat is asleep again.

“No use,” says Toby. “If a cat decides you’re their bed, it’s all over. You’re stuck. Guess it’s the same rules for familiars, too.”

“That’s strange,” says Krel.

Toby shrugs. “Cats, man.”

“This is why I want a dog familiar,” mutters Steve.

Archie wakes up again specifically to give Steve an offended glare, before standing, stretching, and purposefully rearranging himself so his back is turned to Steve when he lays down again. Krel laughs again. Archie glares at him, too, so he stops.

“Thanks for trying to protect me,” Krel tells his friends.

“What are friends for, man?” says Toby. “We’ve got your back. Even Steve.”

“It’s for Aja,” Steve protests. Maybe a few weeks ago Krel would have believed that, but by now he’s pretty sure he knows better. This is confirmed when Steve softens and looks away. “But… you’re welcome.”

Yeah. Krel is glad to have friends.


	6. Mort's School of Wizardry

Somehow, the weekend actually goes well. After nothing goes wrong on Saturday, they decide they’re safe for now, which means Steve has the chance to catch up with his other friends like Seamus and Logan. They’ve grown apart some, ever since Steve got involved with all the weird stuff in Arcadia. Keeping secrets isn’t particularly good for friendships. They both get it a lot more at this point, now that they know about trolls and aliens.

“You know,” says Logan as they toss a football in his backyard, “it’s kinda cool, all this supernatural stuff.”

Steve scoffs. “Yeah, until you’re almost dying.”

“Okay, but do you ever really almost die?”

“Yes,” says Steve flatly. “Like last week.”

“Wait, really?” says Seamus. He looks concerned despite himself. “Dude, what have you gotten yourself into?”

Wizards. Apocalypse number three. Evil knights. Except Steve can’t say any of that to his normal, non-wizard, non-Trollhunter, non-Akiridion friends, so he just shakes his head. “A mess, man. I can’t tell you.”

“Maybe we could help,” says Seamus. “You never know. I have a lot more free time since my dad’s out of town for the summer.”

“Can we get him out forever?” mutters Logan. Seamus chucks the football at him. Seamus’s dad is kind of a sore subject for anyone that knows him, but especially Seamus. Steve personally thinks Mrs. Johnson should follow Mom’s example and kick him out for good, but he also knows that he’s still Seamus’s dad. Steve’s own biological father may have been a total buttsnack, but Steve spent most of his life looking up to the man anyway.

“Thanks, guys,” says Steve. “But I don’t want to drag you into this. Enjoy your normalness.”

Seamus scoffs and mutters something about normalness being a matter of opinion. Logan just laughs and throws the football back to Steve.

“Trolls, aliens,” he says. As he’s talking, Steve tosses the ball towards Seamus. “What’s next? Wizards?”

Seamus fumbles the ball, seemingly choking on air. He shakes his head and picks the ball back up. “That’s ridiculous.”

“Yep,” Steve manages. His voice comes out half an octave higher than he meant it to, so he clears his throat. “That’s crazy, man.”

“Well, whatever it is, it’s gotta be some sort of crazy,” says Logan. “And given the last two crazy things, it’s gonna involve the rest of us eventually.”

Steve winces. He’s right, of course. Once it gets end of the world time, people are going to know. Probably. Usually, the end of the world is kind of a big, obvious deal. Steve wants to laugh, because how many people actually know what the end of the world is _usually_ like? The end of the world isn’t supposed to be a _usually_ type of event.

“Well,” he says, “just enjoy your break while you have it.”

Monday morning, he and Toby and Krel meet up back at Mort’s shop. Steve tries to hide his excitement, but getting to learn magic is pretty exciting so he’s not sure he does a good job. Toby, at least, looks equally thrilled.

“Dude, this is so cool!” he gushes as they walk in. “You’re going to be leaning magic! _Magic_!”

“I know, I know,” Steve laughs. “I wonder if I’ll get to blow something up. Or learn that trick Mort did on Friday!”

“Maybe eventually.” Mort appears from the trapdoor, brushing off his hands on his jeans. “Good morning, boys. Have a good weekend?”

“Toby, Aaarrrgghh!!!, and I worked on the Mothership,” says Krel. He picks up a cat-shaped glass figure off the shelf and inspects it. “We finally got rid of all the destroyed OMENs.”

“Only took us all weekend,” says Toby.

“Careful with the cursed talismans, if you will, Krel,” says Mort. Krel’s eyes widen and he quickly puts the figure back on the shelf. Steve can’t tell if Mort’s joking or not. He makes a note not to touch anything on that shelf. “Spaceships. Don’t know why I expected anything different.”

“Are we training with Nimue again today?” Krel asks. His grimace makes it clear he hopes the answer is no.

“Not this morning,” says Mort. “You know, we could use a few more hands in the shop here. You boys are here pretty often, if you wanted to work in the shop while I train Steve I’d be willing to pay you.”

Toby lights up. “You mean like a real-life summer job?”

“Exactly like that,” says Mort.

“Yes!” Toby cheers. “Man, Nana is gonna be so happy.”

“Will I get cursed?” Krel asks warily. He eyes the glass figures on the shelf and takes a fairly large step away from them. Toby does the same.

“Not if you’re careful,” says Mort. “I think Douxie’s still sleeping, but I’ll get him to come down so he can show you the ropes.”

“We get to work in a magic shop,” Toby whispers in awe.

Mort walks to a door in the back of the shop, propped open to reveal a stairwell. He cups his hands around his mouth and leans forward.

“DOUXIE! UP!” After a few moments and no response, Mort grabs a broom and walks closer to the front of the shop, then uses it to pound on the ceiling. “_DOUXIE_!”

There’s a thud from upstairs. Mort nods approvingly and puts the broom back. Steve pities his new friend.

“He’ll be down in a minute,” he says. “If he’s not, go up and bother him. Alright, Steve. Follow me downstairs and we’ll begin your training.”

“Yes!” Steve exclaims, pumping his fist in the air. He follows Mort into the library. “What are we learning first? Cool shielding spells? Magic blasts! Magic _explosions_!”

Mort raises an eyebrow. “Why don’t we sit?”

Steve sits. He leans forward eagerly, hands on his knees. “Okay. Tell me what to do.”

“Close your eyes,” says Mort. Steve closes his eyes. “Clear your mind.”

Steve waits.

He waits a few seconds longer.

“And then?” he prompts.

“And then keep it clear, for now,” says Mort. “We’re meditating.”

“Meditating!?” Steve exclaims, eyes flying open. “But that’s no fun! When do we do magic?”

“When you can sit still for more than five minutes,” says Mort dryly. He doesn’t open his eyes. “Clear your mind.”

“Ugghhhh,” Steve groans.

“Magic needs intent,” says Mort. “Intent needs a clear mind. If your intent is muddied, your magic will be, too.”

Steve huffs out a sigh but closes his eyes. Clear his mind. Clear his mind. Don’t think… of anything… someone just turned a book page. It’s probably Archie. Wouldn’t his glasses mess with him? How do they stay on? What kind of cat has bad eyesight, anyway?

No. Clear mind, clear mind. There are footsteps upstairs. Did Douxie get up? Man, Steve would be pissed if his parents did that to him. Well, not parents, Coach isn’t a parent. Well. Sort of, Coach is sort of a parent. Can he count Coach as a parent?

“Come on, focus, Steve,” he mutters aloud.

This is going to be a long day.

Steve still hasn’t managed to “clear his mind” by the time Mort decides to break for lunch. He tells him to join Krel and Toby and Douxie and go get lunch downtown somewhere. Douxie glares grumpily at his uncle even as Mort shoves a couple of bills in his hands and tells him it’s break time.

“He could wake me like a normal person, but no,” Douxie complains as they walk to the nearest fast food place for lunch.

“The other night Steve dumped water on me,” says Krel, sending Steve a glare.

“It worked,” says Steve.

They order and Douxie pays. It’s immediately obvious that Krel has never had fast food beyond Stuart’s taco truck before because he seems baffled by the whole process. It’s kind of amusing to watch him get confused by human things. It’s like a puppy. He even sometimes does the head-tilt thing.

“How’s magic training going?” Toby asks eagerly as they sit down.

“Awful,” says Steve, violently spurting ketchup onto his burger. “All we’ve done is _meditate_!”

Douxie chuckles. “Sounds about right. Trust me. It’s even less fun when you’re a kid.”

“When do we get to the good stuff?” Steve demands.

“Well, I was on meditation for at least a month,” says Douxie. Steve’s jaw drops. “But I’m pretty sure you’re on the fast track, given the end of the world and all. You’ll probably move on after you can manage to clear your mind decently.”

Steve deflates. “Great. At this rate, it’ll take all month just to do that.”

“You’ll get the hang of it,” says Douxie.

“How’s the shop?” Steve asks, glancing at Krel and Toby.

“I think we’re doing pretty well,” says Toby.

“We’re very bad at it,” says Krel.

“They’ll learn,” says Douxie. “We haven’t had many customers. I’m trying to catch them up on terminology.”

“It’s so magicky,” gushes Toby. “I feel like I’m living in a fantasy book, it’s so cool! Like, what are our lives, man?”

“I, for one, would prefer a much less exciting life,” says Krel.

Douxie chuckles. “You should have seen Uncle Mort’s face when I told him about the Eternal Night thing. He was half ready to straight-up move.”

“I don’t blame him,” says Steve.

“I told him about this and he was just like…” Douxie pauses and clears his throat, then tries to mimic Mort’s voice. “Why is it always Arcadia? This never happened back in England! I lived there for decades with _no_ apocalypses! Decades!”

“I’m pretty sure the apocalypses started when Krel came,” says Toby. “So it’s kinda his fault.”

“Hey!” Krel protests. “I had no part of your Eternal Night. That was all you.”

“Well, I just got dragged into all of this,” Steve says. “I made the wrong friends.”

“That is not how Eli told it,” says Toby.

“What does Eli know?”

“He was _there_, Steve.”

Krel starts to laugh, but suddenly his face goes slack in horror. Steve’s brow furrows and he turns to see what Krel is starting at – oh, no.

Across the street, staring at them through the window, stands the Green Knight. She looks as impassive as always, but that doesn’t mean she can’t kick their butts. Again. Steve’s cut is still tender, and technically he made it worse by fighting the bounty hunter the other day.

“She’s _back_,” whispers Toby.

“Alright, we should get out of here,” says Douxie. “We’ll ask to use a back exit. Come on, pack up your food.”

He doesn’t have to tell them twice. All three of them shove what’s left of their meals in the two paper bags. Douxie grabs them and returns the trays, then leads them to the ordering counter.

“Hey,” he says, “we, uh, have a _supernatural_ problem. You remember the trolls and aliens, right?”

The cashier – someone from their school that Steve doesn’t actually know – glances at Krel, who smiles awkwardly, then nods. “Need the kitchen exit?”

“That would be fantastic,” says Douxie.

Douxie leads them awkwardly through the kitchen and out the door in the back. He waves for them to hurry.

“We can use the sewers,” says Toby.

“And go out front and face her? No, follow me,” says Douxie. He leads them down the back-alley with the speed of someone who’s done it before. The way Toby moves suggests he has too, and Steve wonders if they hid trolls in these alleys at some point. He doesn’t know details about what happened between giving umbrellas to the trolls and the Eternal Night.

Douxie pushes open a door that must lead to Mort’s shop and ushers them in. They’re in some sort of storage room. It’s cluttered and feels… weird, somehow, like there’s too many people buzzing around except there’s no people. Douxie leads them out and immediately rushes to the front desk to activate the barrier.

“We’re safe,” he says. A glance out the window says they aren’t safe for long. The Knight is out front, waiting. Steve mentally waves goodbye to his alone time. It’s back to sleepovers with Toby and Krel.

“How did she get out of Trollmarket?” Toby whines. “I didn’t think there were any horngazels down there!”

“Well, she got out!” snaps Steve. “Why won’t she leave us alone? We beat her! We passed her test!”

“I don’t think she counted it,” says Krel.

Mort enters from the upstairs. He looks kind of baffled to see them back so soon. “You know, lunch breaks are usually an hour or so.”

“She’s back!” Toby cries, pointing at the Knight. “We didn’t really want to get attacked again.”

Mort’s eyebrows shoot up. “Ah. The infamous Green Knight. Well, you are safe here. We’ll have to figure something out for later.”

“We’ll just do what we were doing before,” says Steve. “Sleepovers. It works.”

“Well, then,” says Mort. “Nimue wants to see you again.”

Krel and Toby exchange mournful looks.

“Do we have to?” Krel asks.

“It’s good for you,” Mort prompts.

“Let’s go get beaten up,” grumbles Toby.

Mort turns to Steve as Toby and Krel climb through the trap door. “Are you ready to keep training, Steve?”

Douxie, behind his uncle, gives Steve a grin and two thumbs-up. Steve sighs. “Yep. More meditating. Yay.”

He follows Mort back into the library and sits before being asked. He even closes his eyes and tries meditating without being asked. How hard can it be to clear his mind? He’s never actually realised just how much is in his mind before now. Ugh, why is there so much!? Why do wizards have to meditate anyway? He bets he could do spells without it.

“This is pointless!” he bursts out. “I did a spell in Trollmarket, I think I’m ready.”

“You did a spell?” says Mort. Steve can’t read his expression, but he hopes it means Mort is rethinking starting with the basics.

“Yeah, I saved the others!” he boasts for good measure.

“Did you?” Mort makes a non-committal hum and stands. He makes his way to the desk. He opens a drawer and pulls out a piece of paper, then sets it in front of Steve. “Alright. Levitate the paper.”

“What?”

“Levitate it,” says Mort. “It’s very simple. All it takes is intent and focus. One of the easiest spells in the book. It doesn’t even take words. Go on.”

“Uh – I – fine!” Steve glares at the piece of paper and tries to will it to levitate. It doesn’t budge. He glares harder. It still doesn’t budge. He starts mentally ordering it to levitate, getting more and more frustrated each time it fails to lift its stupid self off the ground.

Then, finally, the paper bursts into flames. Steve scrambles backwards with a yelp, but Mort just waves a hand over the paper and the flames go out. Smoke curls off the charred remains of the page.

“Muddied intent,” says Mort. “Magic is dangerous. You got lucky when you saved your friends. You just as easily could have killed them. Or worse.”

Steve stares at the ashes of the piece of paper. He – could have killed them? He could have killed them. He could have messed it up, and instead of being splat at the bottom of a staircase they’d be – he doesn’t know – burned to a crisp or – or exploded into a million tiny gross bits. He shudders to even think about it.

“Magic can do many wonders.” Mort waves his hand over the ashes and they fly into the air, sparkling in beautiful lights floating around the room that morph to show Arcadia. Then Mort closes his hand, and the illusion of Arcadia catches fire. Steve flinches. “It can also do many horrors. Even a simple levitation spell can backfire. Imagine a more complex spell, used in the midst of battle, and what that could do.”

Steve doesn’t want to imagine. He doesn’t want to think he could accidentally kill his friends.

“Do you see why meditation is important?” Mort prompts softly. “Clearing your mind is an essential talent for a wizard.”

Steve swallows. “I get it.”

The illusion vanishes. As the candlelight flickers back to its normal level, Mort’s face looks tired and sad. “All beginning wizards make mistakes. Usually they aren’t in your position, where a mistake could cost you or your friends their lives. Promise me that until I give the okay, you won’t use magic in battle.”

The ashes of the paper have settled back to the floor, dusting the hardwood with grey. Steve can’t stop staring at them and thinking of what ifs. He nods stiffly, and finally tears his eyes back to Mort. “I promise.”

They’re spending the night at Toby’s tonight. Mort drives them; Steve regrets assuming the Knight was still safely in Trollmarket and leaving his Vespa at home. Dinner is pizza again, not that Steve’s complaining. They set up in the living room with sleeping bags and Aaarrrgghh!!!. Krel has somehow gotten his hands on a guitar and is absently strumming it.

“Steve, you alright?” Toby asks.

“Huh?” Steve says. “Oh, I’m fine.”

Toby’s eyebrows shoot up. “Really? Because usually you’d have some sort of stupid comeback ready.”

“My comebacks aren’t stupid,” Steve retorts half-heartedly. He picks up his slice of pizza and bites into it, then, adds, “My comebacks are the best.”

“Keep telling yourself that,” says Krel.

“Learning magic isn’t all it’s cracked up to be?” Toby guesses. When Steve doesn’t answer, he nods as if everything makes sense. “Meditation. Doesn’t sound very fun.”

Krel rolls his eyes. “You and my sister, always rushing into things. You two are made for each other!”

“It’s more that magic isn’t all it’s cracked up to be,” Steve mutters.

“What?” scoffs Toby. “No way. Magic is awesome!”

“Magic can kill people,” Steve snaps.

“So?” says Krel. “So can Aja, but you still like her.”

“It’s not the same thing.”

“Magic dangerous,” Aaarrrgghh!!! rumbles. He pats Steve on the head. “Takes practice.”

“Maybe I don’t want to practice anymore!” explodes Steve. “Maybe I just want to be a normal guy. Who’s dating an Akiridion queen and is friends with trolls and extra-terrestrials and wizards – but normal! Who doesn’t have magic!”

Toby and Krel look surprised by his outburst. Steve crosses his arms. He was a lot more excited about magic when it was cool and fun and not something he could mess up and ruin everything with. When it was something that could come easy to him. He knows he can’t just give up when it’s hard – Eli drilled that into him about math class – but this is different. If he messes up in math class, no one dies, except maybe Ms. Janeth’s minimal faith in him. If he messes up with magic, people he cares about could die. Not that he’ll ever admit to being worried about that, least of all to the people he’s worried about killing.

“I mean, you have magic whether you want it or not,” reasons Toby. “Might as well make the best of it.”

Steve scowls at his pizza. Toby has a point – not that Steve will ever say that out loud, of course, but he does have a point. What if in not learning magic he accidentally hurts someone? It’s a – a catch something. There’s a number. Catch… 42? No, wait, that doesn’t sound right. It doesn’t matter. He can’t win.

“Besides,” says Krel, “with the Green Knight back, we’re going to need your magic. If you haven’t noticed, we haven’t stood a chance against her without it.”

“I could have killed you guys!” Steve blurts. His mouth snaps shut and he looks away.

“We were going to die anyway,” says Toby. “It was kind of a life or death situation. And what’s important is that we all got away. Isn’t it better to have a dangerous advantage than a safe disadvantage?”

“That doesn’t make any sense,” says Krel.

“It makes total sense!”

“What is a safe disadvantage? That does not make sense.”

“I’m just saying, I could accidentally give Krel a concussion with my war-hammer, but I’d still rather have it,” Toby says.

“Why are you giving me the concussion? Give Steve the concussion.”

“We all know it’d be you.”

“Why am I always the one getting knocked out even in hypothetical situations?”

Steve laughs despite himself. Once again, Toby has a point. About the magic, not about Krel. Well, yes about Krel, but that’s a whole different can of worms. Aaarrrgghh!!! offers him a smile and Steve gives him his paper plate to eat. Not exactly trollish gourmet, but, hey, Aaarrrgghh!!! seems to like it well enough.

“How was training with Nimue?” he asks the others.

“How do you think?” says Krel. “I think she just enjoys beating us up.”

“We’re improving,” says Toby.

“No, we’re not.”

“Maybe you’re not,” Toby shoots back, “but I am. Next time the Green Knight attacks, she better watch out.”

“Shh!” Steve hisses. “She could be outside listening!”

“She’s not going to hear us from outside.”

“She could have super hearing!”

“You know, Akiridions can hear everything within a mile radius,” says Krel.

Toby and Steve stare at him. He keeps a straight face, which makes Steve really unsure whether he’s kidding or not. Would Aja have thought to mention that? Would it have come up?

“Wait, really?” asks Steve finally.

“No,” says Toby.

Krel’s face splits into a grin. “No. We can’t. I was joking.”

“You’re a horrible person,” says Steve. “I want you to know that.”

“I know,” says Krel smugly.

Steve can’t sleep. Toby and Krel have been out for at least an hour now, but Steve is still restless from the day and stressed about the Knight outside and the end of the world slowly approaching. He hopes it’s slow. If it came, like, tomorrow or something, they’d really be screwed.

He unzips his sleeping bag and sits up. The room is only lit by the faint yellows of street lights outside and Krel’s natural glow, dim enough that Steve knows he’s not having one of his weird dreams. Aaarrrgghh!!! watches him. Steve swears the troll knows something he doesn’t.

He closes his eyes and lets out a breath.

Clear mind. He needs a clear mind.

Maybe he’s been going about this wrong. Mort said magic is about intent. Maybe he isn’t supposed to _empty_ his mind but focus it. Make his intent clear. He tries to think of his intent. All he really wants is for things to turn out okay, for himself and his friends to be okay. That’s sort of intent, isn’t it?

He thinks of Seamus and Logan, his normal friends who still have the chance to have a normal summer. He thinks of Aja and Eli back on Akiridion-5. He hopes they’re having fun. He takes the warmth in his heart at the thought of their laughter and latches onto it. He thinks of Mom, trying her best for him even when she doesn’t know what’s going on. He thinks of Coach, who despite being new to his home is everything Steve ever wanted in a father. He thinks of Krel and Toby, asleep beside him, caught up in this mess as much as he is. He focuses on their breathing – on Toby’s quiet snores and Krel’s near-silent breaths – on Toby shifting in his sleeping bag and the soft noises Krel makes.

He just wants to protect them.

He opens his eyes.

The world around him has lit up, colours floating in the air, connecting and mixing in beautiful swirls like paint on a canvas. He looks around, mouth falling open in awe. The glow is brightest around his friends. Toby is surrounded by a bright, happy orange, bursting like flames. Other colours twist in, a deep, earthy blue curling near his heart, a dark purple swirling and connecting to the blue, a light teal and forest green dancing together, a golden yellow that nearly blends in, a white sparking like electricity. Other colours, all somehow important even if Steve doesn’t know how, all winding into an abstract painting. A glance at Krel finds a similar light show of the same sparking white that Steve had caught in Toby’s orange. Krel has far fewer colours mixed in, but Steve catches Toby’s fiery orange and the same golden yellow, along with a pale blue and two similar, darker blues dancing close to his core. Steve holds out his own hands, surprised to find them coated in gold – he reaches out a runs a hand along the edge of the light surrounding Krel, leaving a faint golden trail and his own fingers stained white.

He looks back at Aaarrrgghh!!!, surrounded in forest green and streaks of teal and orange and blue and probably hundreds of other, fainter colours. The troll smiles and offers him a fist bump. Steve lets out a small laugh and takes it. His knuckles come back painted green.

“Magic dangerous,” Aaarrrgghh!!! says, “but beautiful.”

“Woah,” whispers Steve. He blinks a few times and the colours fade, leaving him back in the dark. That’s fine. He’s giddy he could figure it out at all, even for a brief time.

Maybe magic is worth it after all.

“I think I understand now,” Steve says as he and Mort sit down in the library for training again. “I’m ready to learn. I’ll stop being impatient.”

“I’m glad to hear that,” says Mort. “I was somewhat worried I scared you off.”

“Who, me?” scoffs Steve, who will absolutely not admit that Mort almost had. “Nah. But, uh – I think I managed to meditate last night.”

“Good,” says Mort.

“So, uh… what are the colours?”

Mort frowns and sits up straighter. “I’m sorry?”

“The colours,” repeats Steve. “You know – I meditated and then I opened my eyes and everyone around me was glowing! What’s up with that?”

Mort leans back. “Huh. Colour me impressed. You can see auras.”

“Uh – I can see what now?”

“Auras,” says Mort. “The life force inside all of us. Not many wizards can actually see them, although most can vaguely sense them. You’re born with a single-coloured aura, but as you make personal connections your aura shifts and gains the colours of others in your life.”

“Can you see auras?” Steve asks.

Mort nods. “I can. It can tell you a lot about a person. It’s how I know that even if you hide it, you really do care about your friends. It shows.”

Steve’s cheeks heat up. “Well – maybe.”

“So, meditation unlocked the ability?” says Mort. “That sounds right.”

“I think I figured it out,” says Steve. “You didn’t mean for me to _empty_ my mind, you meant I need to focus! Right?”

“That’s… sort of,” agrees Mort. “It’s really more step two, but it works.”

“So I was supposed to empty my mind?”

“Usually,” Mort says. “When you’re doing a spell, you’ll want to ensure you don’t get distracted and mess it up. If you’re willing to share, what did you meditate on?”

“Uh – well, I dunno, I don’t remember exactly,” stammers Steve. He’s definitely not going to say he meditated on protecting the people he cared about. That’s way too cheesy.

Mort chuckles. “Alright. Well, if you’re up for it, I think we’ll do a bit more meditating, and then, _maybe_, you can try a spell.”

“Wait, really?” Steve exclaims. Mort nods with an amused smile. “YES! Finally!”

“Don’t get too carried away,” he says.

“Right, sorry.” Steve shifts to be more comfortable. “Meditating. Cool, cool.”

He closes his eyes and tries to focus on something like he did last night. It’s a lot harder with footsteps overhead and Archie reading in the back again. Why does that cat read so much?

Okay. Focus, focus… he makes himself think of his friends again. That worked last time, sappy as it was. It takes less time to bring his focus to them, and when he cracks an eye open, the room has lit up. He has to squeeze his eyes shut.

“It’s so bright in here!” he exclaims.

“That would be the ambient magic in the shop,” says Mort, amusement lacing his voice. “Open your eyes. You’ll adjust.”

Steve pries his eyes open and blinks rapidly. The brightness fades slowly to be a lot less glaring. Mort is smiling, his own aura flaring around him like – like those things on the sun that look like loop-de-loops. It’s way more multi-coloured than Toby’s or Krel’s, more on par with Aaarrrgghh!!!’s.

“You have a lot of friends,” he blurts.

Mort laughs. “Well, I’ve been around for a while.”

“Do you see auras all the time?” asks Steve.

Mort nods. “I do. It’s very easy to tune down and ignore once you’re used to it. I learned very young. My aunt is a wizard – well, technically a sorceress, but no one cares about that sort of thing nowadays. We all use wizard. Anyway, she taught me from a young age.”

“That’s so cool,” says Steve. “Did she help you teach Douxie?”

“Douxie has never met her,” says Mort. “My aunt and I don’t exactly… get along these days. Let’s call it a difference of opinions and leave it there.”

“Oh,” says Steve. Mort masks his sour expression with a warm smile. Steve hesitates. “I, uh. Kinda get it. My birth dad was a real buttsnack.”

“In the end, we all have to build our own families.” Mort holds out a hand as if for a high-five. Steve meets him in the middle, and they hold for a few seconds and separate. Steve’s palm is painted with a deep bronze and Mort’s is coloured golden. “And I think we tend to build ourselves pretty great families. Don’t you?”

Steve thinks of his mom and Coach, of the friends he’s known since he was a kid, of the friends he’s made through all this weirdness. Seamus and Logan. Jim and Claire and the trolls. Eli and Toby and Krel and Aja.

“Yeah,” he says. “I think we do.”


	7. The Grass is Always Greener

Toby is sure that Steve is going to get his butt whooped sparring Douxie with magic, so he makes popcorn for while he and Krel enjoy the show. Steve’s been learning magic for almost a week now – which Toby and Krel have been hearing about every night. The Green Knight hasn’t attacked them since she escaped Trollmarket, just stalked them creepily, but that’s not going to last long. Even if part of Toby is a _little_ jealous that Steve gets the cool magic powers, they’re definitely going to need them.

“This is going to be good,” says Krel. He grabs a handful of popcorn for himself.

Steve squares off on one side of Nimue’s gym. Douxie stands on the other side, rolling up his hoodie sleeves.

“Okay,” Mort says, standing as referee on the side-lines. “This is going to be a simple spar. Ten minutes, or until someone yields. No killing, no maiming, and Douxie? Stick to beginner spells for Steve’s sake.”

“Sure thing,” says Douxie.

“Steve is going to get pummelled,” Toby says.

“Ready?” calls Mort. Steve adjusts his stance and gives Douxie a confident grin. Douxie raises an eyebrow and smirks back. “Begin!”

Douxie lets Steve make the first move. Steve raises his hands and a glowing, golden circle forms in front of them – Toby is almost violently reminded of Morgana, but he tells himself that he’s never really seen anyone do magic like this so it must be normal. Steve pushes the circle forward, yelling, “Fireball!”

“Why is he yelling his move like an anime character?” Toby scoffs.

Nimue steals a handful of popcorn. “Typical beginner move. Makes it easier to focus intent.”

Douxie side-steps the rather pitiful “fireball” and it fizzles out in mid-air. Douxie counters with a wave of a hand and Steve shoots into the air with a screech.

“Douxie, beginner’s spells,” Mort chides.

“It’s levitation!” Douxie protests. “That’s a beginner spell! It’s even more beginner than the fireball!”

Mort gives him an unimpressed look. Douxie drops Steve, who lands with a thud and a grunt. Steve pushes himself back to his feet. Toby gives him a thumbs-up. Krel cups his hands around his mouth.

“You can do this, Steve!” he calls. Then he grabs another handful of popcorn and mutters to Toby, “He can’t do this.”

Steve makes another determined attempt at a spell – this one he doesn’t yell, but Toby can see him whispering it still. Eh, well, still better for stealth than shouting. His hands light up with the circles again. He slams his hands to the floor, and ice spreads from where his palms touch. Unfortunately for Steve, who was probably hoping the ice would reach Douxie, the ice stops about a half a foot from his hands and no further.

“Oh, come on!” Steve exclaims.

Mort covers his face in that special sort of embarrassment that comes from being the teacher of a student making a fool of themselves in public. Douxie grins and blue-grey circles form around his hands.

“What’s with the circles, anyway?” Toby asks, drawing his attention away from the spar for a moment.

“Focusers,” says Nimue. She grabs more popcorn. “Even the most experienced wizards need them for a lot of spells. They help prevent our magic from lashing out or reacting wrong.”

Toby nods. “But they aren’t needed for every spell? ‘Cause Douxie did the one spell without them. And I know I saw Morgana do spells without them.”

“Yep,” says Nimue. “Most simple spells can be done without a focuser. And if you’re experienced enough, you can do a good bit without one, so I’m not surprised Morgana could. You can also conjure weapons without one.”

Toby snaps back to the duel as Steve, screaming, careens into a wall. Douxie looks smug. Toby has no idea what he did and wishes he’d been paying attention to see it. Mort looks like he’s given up.

Douxie readies focusers again and Steve covers his head.

“Yield! I yield!” he cries. Douxie lowers his hand and walks over to Steve to offer him help getting back up. Steve takes it, although with a good measure of Steve-style pouting.

“Not bad, for a beginner,” says Douxie.

“And now I know what we need to work on,” mutters Mort. “Alright. Later. Right now, I say we go out for ice cream, my treat. In celebration of Steve’s progress.”

Krel snorts. “What progress?”

“I heard that!” Steve snaps.

“Hey, you didn’t do too bad, man,” says Toby as Steve and Douxie join the rest of them. “Besides, it was your first spar! You should have seen Jimbo the first time he sparred anyone. Draal totally kicked his butt, like, way worse than this. You’ll get the hang of it.”

“Toby is right,” says Mort. “It takes time and practice.”

“Yeah, I guess,” grumbles Steve.

“You should have seen Douxie when he was starting out,” adds Mort.

Douxie’s eyes widen. “No. No, he should not have seen that.”

“I have video,” says Mort.

“No,” moans Douxie.

“It’ll definitely make you feel better.” Mort pats Steve on the shoulder. Douxie lets out an annoyed groan. “No one starts out a master.”

The Green Knight is waiting outside when they come upstairs in the shop. Toby is really sick of her following them around. He hopes she lets them get ice cream in peace. Toby could really go for an ice cream.

Unfortunately, Toby’s hopes are in vain. They make it just far enough from the shop that they can’t just turn around and run back inside, and then the Green Knight attacks. Mort immediately throws up a shield, golden-bronze focusers lighting up around his hands.

Nimue summons her daggers and mutters a curse under her breath. Krel deactivates his transduction. The rest of them ready their weapons.

“Alright, maybe not ice cream today,” says Mort. “We’ll have to rain check. Kids, get out of here. I’ll hold her off.”

“I’ll help!” adds Douxie.

Mort shoots his nephew a glare. “I said kids. You are a kid. Go with the kids!”

“Come on,” Toby urges. Douxie makes a frustrated noise, then motions for them to follow him. Toby feels a bit bad leaving Mort and Nimue alone, but from the flashes of light behind them, he’s pretty sure they'll be okay. They stand a better chance than any of the rest of them.

“Which way to Trollmarket?” Douxie demands as they run.

“This way!” Toby takes the lead, suddenly very glad he still carries the horngazel with him almost everywhere as a force of habit. They’ll be safe in Trollmarket for a little bit, even if the Knight does manage to get past Mort.

They barrel past pedestrians in downtown Arcadia on their way to the canal. He misses the time when none of the bad guys ever attacked in broad daylight. Oh, man, things were so much simpler back then.

“Into the canal!” he calls.

Toby stumbles to the wall and opens the portal as quickly as he can. He has no idea how much time they have. As soon as it’s open, the four of them rush through. The portal closes behind them. They’re safe.

For now.

“Okay,” says Toby. “We need to get deeper into Trollmarket. Buy ourselves more time to think up a plan.”

“Right, good plan,” says Douxie.

“Mort and Nimue can handle her,” says Steve. “Right? I mean, he’s like – like really good at magic. And Nimue’s a great fighter!”

“Yeah, but the Knight is relentless, man,” says Toby. “And she doesn’t have to beat them to get away.”

“Deeper…” repeats Krel to himself. His eyes widen. “That’s it! The Deep!”

“What?” says Steve.

“The Deep,” Krel repeats. “We can hide in the safe where Can-in-jars hid Gaylen’s core!”

“_What_?”

“No, no, no, Krel’s right,” says Toby. “Come on, this way.”

Toby leads them through the remains of Trollmarket. He really, really hates being here. After this, his new goal is to never come back. They can find somewhere else to hide. Maybe they’ll high-tail it to the Janus Order and hide there. Or maybe they can get Not-Enrigue’s help and hide in Strickler’s office. If the green Knight were a changeling, she’d be in troll form now, right? Since they rescued the familiars? So they’d know if she was a changeling.

They reach the Hero’s Forge and the ledge to the Deep. Steve and Douxie both turn pale when they look down. Douxie stumbles back a few steps.

“Okay, so what’s the plan?” he asks. “Please tell me jumping off a cliff isn’t the plan.”

“Kinda the plan,” says Toby.

Krel pulls out his hoverboard and drops it. It expands to full size. “Okay,” he says. “This can do two at a time. Toby, can you take Douxie?”

Toby activates his war-hammer. “You got it, man.”

“Maybe we come up with a different plan,” says Douxie.

“Relax,” says Krel. “Toby and I have done this before. And the defences are probably off.”

“And if they aren’t?” Steve squeaks.

“It’s only your worst fear,” reasons Krel. “I managed it. You’ll be fine.”

“This feels like a terrible idea,” says Douxie.

“Just don’t let go,” says Toby. Krel and Steve climb onto the hoverboard and dive in first, then Douxie grabs onto Toby and they jump off. It takes the wizard a good thirty seconds to realise they aren’t plummeting to their dooms, at which point he finally relaxes. They hit the ground outside the safe, which isn’t so much a safe anymore as a mostly-caved-in room.

“We’ll be safe here for as long as it takes the Knight to find us,” says Krel.

“Yeesh, what happened here?” says Steve.

“Morando happened,” says Toby. “We fought him to protect Gaylen’s core.”

“And lost,” mutters Krel.

“Yeah, I can see that,” says Steve.

“Okay, we need a plan,” says Toby. “It’s four of us against one of her. You’re good at fighting, right, Douxie?”

Douxie winces. “Yes? Not as good as my uncle. If they get past him, we don’t stand a chance.”

“Thanks for the optimism, man, really appreciate it.” Toby starts pacing, trying to come up with something that might help them. On the upside, they’re all armed. On the downside, none of them are very good fighters. Douxie is definitely right that if the Green Knight can beat Mort _and_ Nimue, they’re pretty screwed.

Douxie pulls out his phone. “I’m going to see if I can reach Mort.”

“Good, good,” says Toby. “Steve? Krel? Ideas?”

“Every bad guy has to have a weakness, right?” says Steve. “We just gotta find her weakness!”

“What weakness?” exclaims Krel. “She always finds us and always beats us. It’s hopeless!”

Douxie, clearly frustrated, lowers his phone. “No response from Mort. He must be still fighting.”

“We’re sitting ducks,” Toby says.

“Maybe we try to ambush her when she gets here,” says Krel. “That way, we have the advantage of surprise.”

“Well, that’s half a plan,” says Douxie. “I like it. Find somewhere to hide and be ready.”

Krel uses the jagged stones on the wall to clamber up it. Douxie presses himself to the wall on the other side of the entrance, behind a couple of jagged stones. Toby and Steve both scramble behind the rocks in the rest of the room.

“Now, we wait,” Douxie says.

They try calling both Mort and Nimue a couple more times. The more Mort doesn’t answer, the more anxious Douxie gets. Toby gets it. He tries to assume they’re still fighting and not – well, the alternative – but he also kinda has to assume the alternative just in case.

From outside, Toby hears armoured footsteps. Douxie tenses. All four of them ready themselves to attack.

The second the Green Knight walks in, Krel drops from above her with a yell and serrator-spear activated. He actually manages to knock her backwards, but then she grabs the spear and uses it to slam him into the floor. Steve and Toby both charge, weapons drawn. Douxie’s hands light up with focusers and he sends a blast of magic towards her. She leaps out of the way, and Steve and Toby are both bowled over by Douxie’s attack.

Krel pushes himself off the floor, groaning, then shifts his serrator into a gun and takes several shots at the Knight. She dodges all of them.

“See?” Krel calls. “No weaknesses!”

Douxie skids in front of the three of them, throwing up a shield and grunting when the Knight attacks it.

“You guys need to get out of here!” he snaps. “It’s you she’s after. I’ll hold her off for as long as I can.”

“No way!” Toby cries. “You said it yourself, if she beat Mort, you don’t stand a chance!”

“_Go_!” Douxie snarls, before summoning a sparking battle-staff and charging at the Knight with a fierce yell.

“You heard the wizard!” Krel exclaims.

The three of them run. Krel activates his hoverboard and he and Steve leap on. Toby shoots upward with his war-hammer. He glances back at his friends. “I have an idea, but I don’t know if it’ll work!”

“Better than nothing!” Steve yells.

“Follow me!”

He leads them straight to the Gyre station. To his relief, the Gyre is there waiting for them. He hadn’t been sure if it had been destroyed or not, but he’s very glad to see it isn’t.

“Climb in,” he orders. He panics for a moment on where to take them, then remembers he doesn’t completely know how the Gyre works and ultimately puts in something at random and hopes it’s far enough away that they won’t be immediately followed and probably killed.

“What is this thing?” Steve demands.

“It’s a Gyre!” says Toby. “Hold on tight!”

He turns it on. The Gyre shoots off towards its destination. Steve shrieks in terror. Krel cackles like he’s on a rollercoaster. It’s over in probably as much time as a rollercoaster would be, depositing them deep in a cave system Toby doesn’t recognise.

Toby climbs out. Steve clambers to the nearest outcropping of rock and vomits. Yeah, Toby didn’t need to see that. Krel leaps out, still laughing.

“That was amazing!” he exclaims. “We should do it again.”

“Not amazing!” Steve manages. “Never again!”

“I think we’re safe,” says Toby. “For now.”

“Where are we?” says Steve.

“Uh, good question,” says Toby. “One I do not know the answer to.”

“_What_!?”

“We had to get away! I can’t read Trollish! I improvised!”

“We can improvise some more,” Krel suggests. “Maybe get even further.”

“I am never getting on that thing again!” Steve splutters.

“Gonna have to if you want to get home,” Toby points out.

Steve lets out an incoherent, angry yell. Krel hides a laugh, still clearly exhilarated by the ride. Toby makes a note to take Krel to an amusement park if they don’t get killed and the world doesn’t end.

There are footsteps from further down the cave – armoured footsteps, which immediately puts all three of them back on edge. They ready their weapons. Maybe they didn’t get as far as Toby hoped.

The person who rounds the corner isn’t the Green Knight. Rather, it’s Jim, sword drawn and looking just as blue as the last time Toby saw him.

“Toby!?” he exclaims in shock. Daylight disappears. Toby deactivates his war-hammer as Jim bounds forward and lifts him into a hug. “Tobes! What are you doing here?”

“Jimbo, hey!” Toby laughs and pats his best friend’s back. “It’s a long story.”

Jim puts him down and glances at Krel and Steve. He waves. “Hey, Steve. Krel. I guess I didn’t hallucinate that conversation after all.”

Krel chuckles awkwardly. “Uh, nope.”

“Not that I’m not happy to see you, because I am,” says Jim, “but how did you find us?”

“On accident, really,” says Toby, nodding to the Gyre. “We were kinda in a rush.”

“Toby improvised,” says Krel. “It was fantastic.”

“Come on,” says Jim. “Claire and Blinky will be happy to see you, too. We’re camped this way.”

The three of them follow Jim back around the corner he’d come from. Coming from the destruction of Trollmarket to see all of the trolls alive and well here feels like a breath of fresh air. Blinky lights up as they approach, and Claire gasps and runs forward to give Toby a hug as well.

“Toby!” she exclaims. She glances at the others. “And Steve and – Krel, right?”

Krel nods and waves.

“Young Tobias, what brings you here?” asks Blinky, giving Toby a two-armed side-hug and a warm smile. All of them sit down in a circle. Krel is still bouncing with energy from the Gyre ride. Jim shifts shortly after sitting to a cross-legged position, leaning back on his hands.

Toby gives the room a cursory look around. He finds Merlin far on the other side, oblivious to their arrival. “Uh, to be fully honest, we were running for our lives.”

Jim’s brow furrows and he sits up straighter. “What happened? Are you guys okay?”

“Before we tell you, you have to promise not to tell your Merlin,” says Krel.

Jim and Claire exchange looks and nod. Blinky harrumphs. “You know I don’t trust that man as far as I could throw him.”

“Yeah, well, neither do we,” says Steve.

“So, for the past couple of weeks, there’s been this crazy lady in green armour stalking us,” says Toby. “Sometimes attacking us and beating the crap out of us. And she just attacked us again, so we did the smart thing and ran.”

“Douxie said she’s called the Green Knight,” says Krel. “She is a tester of heroes, whatever that means. We keep failing her tests.”

“That is highly unusual and concerning,” says Blinky.

“Yeah, well, it turns out the world is ending again,” says Toby. “Third time this summer. Isn’t that great?”

“You know, it’s really the fourth if you count the asteroid,” points out Krel.

“Thank you, Krel,” says Steve flatly. “Four apocalypses since school let out. That’s even better.”

Jim rests his arms on his legs and leans forward. “Do you want us to come help? Not that I don’t think you can handle it! But, hey – Trollhunters have to have each other’s backs.”

“Thanks, Jimbo,” says Toby. “But I dunno. We really don’t want to bring Merlin into this if we can help it, and if you guys come back to Arcadia, he’ll know something’s up.”

“I know you don’t like him, but he might be able to help,” points out Jim.

“Mort doesn’t trust him either,” says Steve. At the others’ confused looks, he adds, “Mort’s Douxie’s uncle. And my magic teacher. I’m a wizard now.”

Jim looks appropriately impressed. Claire snorts. “_You’re_ a wizard?”

“Yes!” Steve exclaims, clearly insulted. “Yes, I’m a wizard. I’m a great wizard. Right? Tell her.”

“Steve got – how did you say, Toby? – Steve got pummelled this morning in his wizard duel,” says Krel.

“Don’t tell her that!”

“Well, it’s true.”

“If you really don’t want us to come, we won’t,” says Jim. “But we can if you do. Just call me anytime. I’ll find a way back ASAP.”

“I know you will,” says Toby.

“I just wish we knew how to defeat her,” says Krel. “Nothing we do works. She managed to get past some of the best fighters we know!”

Blinky crosses his arms. “Hm. Have you tried a dwarkstone?”

“Um,” says Toby, “no. We don’t want to blow her up, we just want her to stop stalking us!”

“It sounds to me like you need to pass her test,” says Claire. “I guess – beat her in a fight.”

“Again, she beat Mort and Nimue!” Krel points out, throwing a hand out for emphasis. “We don’t stand a chance!”

“Well, not with that attitude you don’t!” says Blinky.

Jim puts a hand on Toby’s shoulder and looks between the three of them. “Hey, did I stand a chance against Draal those first two times I fought him? Or Bular? Or Gunmar and Morgana? No! I was way out-matched. I mean, I wrote goodbye letters for the fight against Draal!”

“Yeah,” says Toby. He still has his, tucked away in a bookshelf. As touching as it was, part of it still scares him, that Jim had actually written goodbye letters, that he’d thought he was going to die and Toby couldn’t do anything about it. He vows not to let something like that ever happen again. No more goodbyes.

“Even when it seems completely hopeless, you’ve still got to give it your all,” Jim declares. “You guys have something she doesn’t – you have each other, and that’s all you really need.”

“Uh, each other hasn’t been enough the past several times,” says Krel.

“Then learn from them,” says Jim. “I know that if you guys _really_ work together and play to each of your strengths, I know you can beat her. You just have to have faith in yourselves.”

“You really think we can do this?” Toby asks.

Jim smiles and nods. “I know you can.”

Toby glances at Krel and Steve. They don’t look convinced, but Steve gives him a shrug and a nod.

“Alright,” he says. “Time to go kick some evil knight butt. I guess.”

“This is going to go so badly,” says Krel.

“Call me afterwards,” says Jim. “If you don’t, I’m coming back to Arcadia whether you like it or not.”

“Okay, okay, I’ll call,” says Toby.

They all stand. Jim pulls Toby in for another hug, and then Claire and Blinky both join. Toby wishes he knew exactly how he got the Gyre to bring them here, because if he did he’d be visiting Jim, like, all the time. He misses his best friend.

“Be safe,” Jim mumbles.

“I’ll try,” Toby replies.

It seems Steve likes the Gyre just as much the second time around. Krel, at least, has gotten his good adrenaline rush for the week. Before they leave the Gyre station, Toby tries to lay out a plan.

“Okay,” he says. “Steve. What magic _do _you know?”

“Um, the basics,” says Steve awkwardly. “I can sort of levitate things? Not people. I might catch people on fire.”

“I think that would be acceptable,” says Krel flatly.

“Um, some basic elemental spells,” Steve continues. “That’s all Mort taught me. Oh! But I did read in the book about a spell to, like, freeze people in place? That might also catch her on fire. I don’t know. I’ve never tried it.”

“Eh, we’ll call it a risk worth taking,” says Toby. “Krel, you hold her attention. You’re pretty good at that, you seem to be her favourite if we’re judging by injuries.”

“This already sounds like I’m getting the worst job,” mutters Krel.

“Steve, while she’s distracted, you cast that freezing spell,” says Toby. “Then I’ll come in with my hammer and knock her out! Assuming she’s not on fire or something.”

“And if she is on fire?” Steve asks.

Toby thinks about it for a second. “You dump water on her and then I’ll knock her out.”

“I don’t know any water spells,” Steve says.

“Well, then, we’ll cross that bridge when we get to it,” says Toby. “Everyone got it? Good plan? Playing to our strengths?”

“Apparently my strength is getting injured,” grumbles Krel.

“No, your strength is keeping her distracted,” Toby corrects.

“Do we have a Plan B?” asks Steve.

“Uh…”

“Get back to the improvisation machine and get out of here,” says Krel, jerking his head towards the Gyre.

“The Gyre, and no, we can’t run away _again_, guys.” Toby activates his war-hammer and twirls it, trying to look cool but also fumbling and almost dropping it. “We can _do this_. It’s like Jimbo said, we just gotta have faith in ourselves!”

“I don’t think you understand how incredibly cheesy that is,” says Steve. “This isn’t a movie!”

“Not _yet_ it’s not.” That sounded cooler in his head, so he backtracks and tries again. “Look, guys. Just give it a shot. She’s just going to keep following us and then one day, she’ll give up and just kill us, so we gotta stop her today.”

“Or she could just kill us today,” Krel points out.

“Enough pessimistic comments from the peanut gallery!” Toby exclaims. Krel makes a baffled face. “You guys ready? Because she’s probably waiting for us.”

“Ready as we’ll ever be,” says Steve.

Toby opens the portal back into Trollmarket. They stay on edge, weapons drawn as they walk inside. As if this place wasn’t creepy enough without the possibility of a knight trying to kill them lurking around the corner.

The Knight is waiting for them outside what used to be Bagdwella’s old place. A few feet behind her, Douxie is unconscious on the stone. Toby forces down his fear at the sight of his friend lying motionless on the ground – Douxie will be fine. Toby can’t let himself believe anything else.

“What did you do to Douxie?” Krel demands. The Knight doesn’t respond, so Krel activates his serrator sword and runs at her with an angry yell. Toby and Steve start inching around to flank her. Toby keeps an eye on Krel to make sure he’s holding his own – the second Krel is in life-threatening danger of any kind, Toby’s throwing away the plan. The plan does not include any of them getting killed. Preferably, none of them will get hurt either.

Nimue’s lessons have been paying off. Krel’s doing a much better job against her than he ever would have done a week ago. Toby nods to Steve. Steve shakes his head and gestures wildly.

“Now,” Toby mouths.

Steve points insistently at Krel, then makes a cutthroat motion. Oh. Krel’s in the way.

“Krel!” Toby calls.

Krel looks at him for a split-second, but the momentary distraction is all the Green Knight needs to sweep his legs out from under him. Krel lands hard on the stone with a muffled, “Oof!” The Knight raises her sword. Steve panics.

“Freeze!” he yells, throwing out his hands. Golden focusers burst to life. The Green Knight freezes, surrounded by gold, her sword inches away from coming down on Krel’s unprotected back.

“Seklos and Gaylen,” Krel manages. He shimmies out from under the blade, then stands and gives Toby a wide-eyed look. “Never make me do that again!”

“Yeah, no, we’re never doing that again,” Toby agrees.

“Uh, guys?” strains Steve. His focusers are flickering. “I can’t hold this forever.”

“Crap, right!” exclaims Toby. He shoots into the air with his hammer and speeds at her. “Have a nice nap!”

Steve’s spell fails just as Toby manages to make contact with the back of the Knight’s head. For a second, he’s worried at it didn’t knock her out, but then she collapses. Toby relaxes.

“We did it?” Steve laughs in disbelief. “We did it! We did it! We beat her!”

“See? I told you we could do it!” Toby holds up his hand to Krel, who grins and high-fives him. Toby took special care to teach him that, so he’s proud Krel remembered. “Jimbo was right! All we had to do is believe in ourselves!”

“No, all we had to do is actually come up with a plan for once,” says Steve.

“We should do this planning thing more often,” agrees Krel. Then his eyes widen. “Douxie!”

Toby’s good mood flees him in an instant. The three of them run to Douxie’s side and kneel beside him. Krel’s eyes dart over his form, four hands hovering as if afraid to touch him. Steve gently turns him onto his back. There aren’t any stab wounds that Toby can see, and he’s breathing, both pluses. Steve shakes him lightly, careful not to hurt him worse.

Douxie groans and scrunches up his face, before blinking his eyes open and sitting up. He puts a hand to his head. “Guys? What – happened?”

“We should be asking you that, man,” says Toby. “Are you okay?”

“Ugh, nothing a quick headache potion won’t fix,” says Douxie. Then he gasps. “The Knight – I couldn’t beat her, you guys need to get out of here.”

“Hey, hey, it’s okay,” says Krel. “We beat her.”

“You – what?”

“We beat her,” says Steve, puffing out his chest proudly. “We made a plan and it actually worked. See?”

Douxie squints past them and shakes his head. “Huh. Nicely done. We should get her back to the shop – oh, no, Mort!”

He digs his phone out of his pocket and fumbles to dial his uncle. With a glance at the rest of them, he puts it on speaker-phone. It rings once, then Mort picks up. “Douxie!? Douxie, where are you? Why haven’t you been picking up your phone? Are you and the others okay? I’m coming to get you, stay where you are. You’re trying to give me a heart attack–”

“I’m okay, Uncle Mort,” Douxie cuts in. “So are the others. We’re in Trollmarket, and I don’t think your truck can drive in here.”

“And what of the Green Knight?”

“We beat her!” Toby exclaims. “We actually won!”

“You did? Oh, that’s fantastic news. Alright, I’ll meet you outside Trollmarket with my truck. Er – where is Trollmarket?”

“The canal,” Toby, Krel, and Steve chorus. Toby supposes they’ve heard him yell “Get to the canal!” enough that it’s ingrained in their memories.

“Alright, see you in a few.”

Mort hangs up. Douxie visibly relaxes.

“Thank goodness he’s okay,” he says. Then he glares at the rest of them. “We are not telling him I got knocked out. I’ll never hear the end of it.”

“As long as you don’t tell him I tried a spell I wasn’t supposed to,” says Steve.

Douxie gives him an appraising look and nods. “Deal.”

They bring the Green Knight back to Mort’s shop and tie her up in the library. Nimue checks in briefly to assure them she’s fine and congratulate them for getting lucky. Mort insists on checking all of them for injuries like a frazzled parent, muttering about how he should have known better than to let them go off alone. He tuts at the dark bruises blossoming on Krel’s back and frets at the lump on Douxie’s head.

“Okay,” says Mort as they gather in the library with the unconscious Knight. “I’m going to wake her. I want you boys to try to contain your questions and let me handle this.”

They all nod obediently.

Mort waves a hand in front of her and snaps. She gasps awake. Her eyes dart between all of them, disoriented, then she realises she’s tied to a chair in an unfamiliar room and starts immediately struggling.

“Calm down, we won’t hurt you,” says Mort. “We just want to ask you some questions, alright?”

She meets his eyes.

“Where am I?” she demands.

“You’re in my home, you’re safe,” says Mort. “My name is Mort Penn. I’m a wizard. This is my nephew, Douxie. And these boys are Toby, Krel, and Steve. Do you recognise them?”

Steve scoffs and opens his mouth to say something, but Krel shoots him a look and shakes his head.

“I – yes, vaguely,” she says. “The boys I was sent to – oh, no. No, no, no, please tell me I didn’t hurt them.”

“Vaguely?” prompts Mort. He speaks like he’s realising he actually got the answer right on a particularly hard math problem.

“Yes, vaguely – ugh, will you please untie me, this is incredibly uncomfortable,” she says. At their dubious looks, she adds. “I’m not going to hurt you, either. Please.”

“Why did you attack these boys?” Mort asks.

She makes a frustrated noise. “I had to – I was mind-controlled.”

Mort leans back and nods, unsurprised. The rest of them exchange wide-eyed looks.

“Well?” says the Knight.

“Yes,” says Mort slowly. “I think we do need to talk in a more civilised fashion.”


	8. Striking a Core

Krel isn’t sure how much he trusts the Green Knight, but Mort apparently believes her story about being mind-controlled. All of them relocate to the living room upstairs. Krel is careful to sit nearest the exit, in case she’s lying and attacks them. Toby claims the other side of the couch with him; Steve looks between them and the Knight, then mutters for him and Toby to make room and sits between them. Mort brings the Knight a steaming mug.

“Tea,” he says. At her cautious look, he adds, “Halal. I checked for you.”

“Thank you,” she says softly.

Mort sits next to a yawning Douxie on the other couch and leans forward on his knees. “Now, I think it’s time we discuss this… mind-control situation.”

“Yes, of course,” she says. “First, let me introduce myself. My name is Ikram. I was born in what is now called Saudi Arabia, in the twelfth century.”

“Wait, what!?” exclaims Toby. “No way are you that old!”

The Knight – Ikram – chuckles. “I’m afraid so, child. I was cursed with immortality by the same wizard who mind-controlled me. For the past several centuries, I thought I was free, but a few weeks ago, he took over again and – well, sent me after you.”

“Why us?” asks Steve. “I mean, what did we ever do to him?”

“I don’t know,” she says. “I haven’t even seen the wizard in person in centuries. If he trusted me, he wouldn’t have had to mind-control me.”

“We understand,” says Mort. “And I’m truly sorry you had to go through that. Any wizard who imposes his will on others is a monster.”

Ikram glances between the three of them. Krel shifts awkwardly, tugging at a strap on his wrist brace.

“There are more Knights,” she warns. “And they will come, now that I have been released. You must be careful. No offence meant, but you three are some of the worst fighters I’ve ever had to face.”

“Hey!” Steve protests. “We beat you!”

“By pure luck,” she says flatly. “You need training.”

“We’re getting trained,” Krel says. “Nimue is teaching us how to fight.”

“You need _more _training.” Ikram takes a sip of her tea. “That’s why I am going to train you. If your guardian agrees.”

Mort raises his hands when her eyes land on him. “Don’t look at me. I’m not their guardian.”

Her brow furrows. “You’re not? Hm. Then where are their guardians?”

“At home,” says Toby. “And I’m sure Nana would be fine with it.”

“How do we know you’re not going to kill us during training?” challenges Steve. “This could all be a plot to get us vulnerable.”

“It could be,” Ikram agrees. “I understand that you won’t trust me right away, but I know how the other Knights fight and I know how to train you, if you’ll allow it.”

“If Mort believes you, I believe you,” says Toby. “We need the training, and if you know the other Knights then you’re our best bet.”

Steve crosses his arms. “Fine. But if we get killed, I’m blaming Toby.”

“I can live with that,” says Toby.

“You’ll be dead, actually,” Krel points out.

“So I guess it’s settled,” says Toby. “You’ll train us.”

Ikram nods solemnly. “I only hope we have enough time to get you three somewhat competent.”

“Tomorrow,” says Mort. He glances at Douxie, already asleep on the couch. Krel doesn’t blame him. “I think these boys have had a very long day and deserve a good night’s sleep.”

On cue, Toby lets out a yawn. “Yeah. Tomorrow sounds good.”

Steve also yawns, then hits Toby in the arm. “Don’t do that, dude! You’re making me tired!”

“Hey, think of it this way,” says Toby. “We can sleep at our own houses tonight.”

“Great,” says Krel, trying to fake enthusiasm. He knows the others have been getting tired of the near-constant sticking together, but Krel’s been kind of fond of it. Now it’s back to an almost-empty, almost-destroyed mothership with the Blanks.

“I don’t think they’d be here yet, but to be safe, I do suggest you all take alternate routes home,” says Ikram. “I could probably draw your paths on a map.”

“Alright,” says Toby.

“Call me if you run into trouble,” says Mort. “I can always give you a ride home, if you’d prefer.”

“We’re good,” says Steve.

“Where should we meet for training?” Ikram asks.

“We can use my place,” says Krel. “There is a training deck Aja and Varvatos would use.”

“Very well,” says Ikram. “And the address?”

Krel opens his mouth, then realises he doesn’t know this information. He laughs sheepishly. “About that.”

“I know where he lives,” says Mort. Krel doesn’t bother wondering how. It’s probably a wizard thing. “Alright, then, kids. Run along and get some sleep. I’m sure you need it.”

The three say their goodbyes and leave the shop. Steve stretches his arms.

“I don’t know about you guys, but I am going to sleep like a rock tonight,” he says.

“Me too,” says Toby. “I’m beat.”

Krel laughs. “Should we all take different routes? Just in case?”

“Might be a trap,” says Steve.

“I don’t think it’s a trap,” says Toby. “Come on, you trust Mort, don’t you?”

“I guess,” says Steve. “We can try splitting up, but just so you know, that’s never a good idea in movies.”

“Call if anything happens,” orders Toby. He pauses. “Actually, call Mort first, and then each other. Let’s be honest, Mort’s the one that can actually help.”

They say goodbye and split off. Krel isn’t entirely sure which way to go, but he ultimately decides the most unpredictable path he could possibly take is through the woods. He doesn’t like this decision, but he has to admit to himself that it’s a good one. Through the woods it is.

It’s already dark out, and it’s a clear night. The deeper Krel wanders into the forest, the better he can start to see the stars. Krel stares up at them and wonders what patterns the humans have picked out, if they have constellations like Akiridion-5 does. He absently tries to create his own. He’s always been fond of constellations, and it would be nice to have some to find in Earth’s sky. He should look into that.

He’s not paying enough attention to where he’s walking, so it’s no surprise when his shin hits something hard and he completely fails to regain his balance. He tumbles to the forest floor and lays there for a second, hating his decision to trek through the stupid forest with its stupid trees and stupid roots and stupid rocks and–

Wait.

He pushes himself into a sitting position and turns. He sucks in a sharp breath. That is not a root or a rock.

“Gaylen’s core,” he mumbles in awe. He stands and starts brushing leaves and dirt off of the rest of the core. Its faint glow grows steadily brighter as it’s fully revealed. He thought they destroyed it with Morando. How is it here? How did he find it?

He… found it… in the forest… just like his dreams.

That has worrisome implications, but he can’t just leave _Gaylen’s core _in the middle of the forest for just anyone to stumble upon. He digs his hands under it and struggles to lift it up. Why does it have to be so heavy?

The glow brightens, and Krel scrambles backwards and shields his eyes. When it dies down, Gaylen’s core has shrunk down to something Krel can easily pick up with two hands. He hesitates, but, again, he can’t leave it here, so he picks it up. The glow brightens again at his touch; the core feels warm and alive.

“Let’s get you back to the mothership,” he says, glancing around the trees. “I don’t want to be out here any longer than I have to.”

Krel means to get some sleep, he really does. Only Gaylen’s core is the kind of incredible scientific specimen that he can’t help but study. On the surface, it acts a lot like any Akiridion core would. On closer inspection, it’s amazingly different, and Krel has no idea how it works. It’s made of similar material to an Akiridion core, but it’s definitely not the same and the level of energy it contains is unbelievable – the latent powers of a god, supposedly, but from a more scientific perspective, it’s enough energy to power all of Akiridion-5 ten times over, at least.

Needless to say, Krel gets completely sucked into his research.

“Hey, Krel, whatcha got there?”

Krel startles and spins around to face Toby – and Steve, Nimue, and Ikram, it turns out – as they walk into his lab. What are they doing here? Is it morning already? He runs to Toby and tries to put his excitement into words. He can feel himself practically vibrating with it.

“It’s amazing – the power levels are off the charts – hundreds of kilojoules worth of energy, enough to power your whole planet for centuries – I did the Kliiban Test and–”

“Woah, woah, slow down,” says Toby. “The what test?”

“You’re speaking space nerd again,” adds Steve. “None of the rest of us speak space nerd.”

“We can discuss this later,” says Ikram. “Your training is more important right now.”

Krel would like to argue that, no, Gaylen’s core is pretty important, but she does have a point. With the other Knights set to show up any day now, they need to be prepared. Krel can study Gaylen’s core later.

“Right,” he says. “Training. Here, I’ll show you the training deck.”

He leads them through the still somewhat destroyed ship, careful to avoid any dangerous sections. The training deck is, by some miracle, in decent condition. Krel probably should have checked that before. He would have, probably, but _Gaylen’s core_.

“Alright,” says Ikram, stretching and unsheathing her sword from her hip. “Nimue told me what she’s done with you. I want to strengthen that. You’re going to take turns. Who wants to go first?”

“Me!” exclaims Toby, jumping up and down.

Ikram raises an eyebrow, amused. “Alright. Remind me your name?”

“Oh, I’m Toby,” he says. “Tobias Domzalski. But you can just call me Toby, everyone else does. Except Jim, he sometimes calls me Tobes.”

“Alright, Toby,” she says. “Let’s spar.”

Krel and Steve sit on the side-lines as they square off. Krel tries to pay attention as their spar begins, but then he starts thinking about Gaylen’s core again and instead he pulls up the data he’s gathered so far on his phone and starts running simulations. Okay, what, in theory, would happen if he tries to use Gaylen’s core like some sort of battery? Once again glad he upgraded the primitive human tech, he runs a simulation to see – and it exploded, that’s not good. This is why he runs simulations first. Okay, what if he reinforced the wiring and adds a power modulator – nope, that exploded too. Out of curiosity, he pulls up the specs for Seklos’s canon and plugs in Gaylen’s core as power source – exploded as well.

“Ay-yi-yi,” he mutters to himself. He hears Steve beside him hide a laugh, but doesn’t pay him much more mind.

So Gaylen’s core as a power source is not an option. Maybe there’s a way to siphon energy out of it _into _a battery. He starts small. If he just tries to get a single joule out, then maybe – oh, no, that would have hurt in real life. Krel is not interested in being electrocuted today. Maybe using Gaylen’s core for power in any way isn’t an option either. That’s unfortunate.

Is there a way to harness the “latent powers of a god” without integrating with the core? Surely there’s some way. Krel runs several more tests, each one either exploding or smoking or some other worrisome reaction. He’s beginning to wonder if it’s a glitch in the system. He’s not desperate enough to test anything in real life, of course, on the seemingly likely chance it does explode.

He’s suddenly torn away from his simulations when tan fingers snap in front of his face. “Alright, Krel, is it? Off your phone.”

Caught, Krel quickly turns his phone off and sets it on the floor. He gives Ikram a smile. “Uh, my apologies.”

“You’re from the twelfth century, how do you know what a phone is?” Steve exclaims.

Ikram sighs. “I was born in the twelfth century, but I’ve lived in the twenty-first century – well, probably longer than you have. What are you kids, thirteen?”

“Sixteen!” Steve gasps indignantly. Then he nods towards Krel. “Oh, yeah, and I think he’s fifteen.”

“In Earth years,” Krel says.

“We’re not even going to go there,” says Steve.

“I adapted,” says Ikram flatly. She returns her attention to Krel. “It’s your turn for a spar.”

Krel gulps. “Uh, right.”

He pushes himself to his feet and stretches all four arms, then follows her onto the training deck. He activates his serrator.

“Now, act like I’m still trying to kill you,” she says. “I know I’m not in armour right now, but you can pretend. I’m told you’re rather intelligent.”

“I’m very intelligent,” corrects Krel.

“Great, we’ll see if you’re a fast learner when it comes to fighting.” She smirks, then runs at him sword-drawn. Krel panics, but he has learned from fighting Nimue that it isn’t acceptable to make a tactical retreat, so instead he throws up his shield and winces as the sword comes down on it in a shower of sparks.

When she backs up, he switches his serrator to sword form and leaps at her. Unfortunately, she’s clearly expecting that. She dodges and sweeps her sword at his legs – it doesn’t hit him, but as he tries to dodge, he stumbles and trips. She grabs his serrator hand and twists it just enough that he lets go. She releases before she hurts him – again, by the way – and levels her sword at his neck.

“Dead,” she says.

“Yeah,” he mumbles. “I know.”

“You’re distracted,” she notes. “That needs to change. A distracted fighter is a dead fighter. I suggest that you get your mind off whatever it is you’re so preoccupied by before the other Knights show up.”

Krel nods. “Yes. Sorry.”

“Aside from that,” she says, “your technique is sloppy. As I’m sure Nimue has told you before, you need to watch your opponent for openings and weaknesses. I left you plenty. Next time, use them.”

He swallows. “Yes.”

“Aw, don’t worry, Krel,” says Toby, running forward and patting him on the back. “We all got our butts kicked! I say we go out for lunch and then pick this up later. Yeah? We can bother Douxie at his waiter job.”

“We can head to my gym after,” says Nimue. “There’s room enough for two of you to be trained at once – well, really, if we just pit Ikram and I against all three of you you’d still be outmatched.”

“Hey!” protests Steve.

“She’s not wrong,” Toby admits with a wince. “But after lunch! Come on, there’s some nice chicken tenders with my name on them.”

Krel laughs and walks over to pick up his phone again, then turns on his transduction and yawns. Steve shoots him a concerned look. “You alright? You look tired.”

“I just woke up early” he fibs. Steve and Toby will never let him hear the end of it if they find out he didn’t sleep at all. “Come on. Let’s go get something to eat.”

Tonight he’ll get more rest, he tells himself. Gaylen’s core will be able to wait a few hours for him to sleep.

Krel does just as poorly training at Nimue’s, but that’s less because he’s distracted and more because he’s tired. He means to go to sleep that night, get two or three hours.

He doesn’t.

Gaylen’s core captures his attention more than almost any other project ever has. He isn’t foolish enough to run any tests with it outside of a simulation yet. Most of his simulations have ended in explosions of varying levels – once the simulation ended in an explosion big enough to level the entirety of Arcadia, so that idea got immediately discarded forever. Most of the simulations ended unequivocally with his own death. So, yes, he’s smart enough not to test them in real life.

His phone rings. He absently throws the call to a holoscreen. Toby’s face pops up.

“Hey, Toby,” he says. He doesn’t turn around, instead setting up another scan of Gaylen’s core. Maybe he should try a different type of scan – maybe one that looks at low-spectrum energy this time, he’s been focusing too much on high-spectrum energy and it isn’t getting him anywhere.

“Dude, where are you?” Toby exclaims. “We have training this morning!”

“This morning?” says Krel. His eyes widen. “Wait, what time is it?”

Toby frowns. “Krel, it’s almost ten in the morning. Please tell me you got sleep last night.”

“Enough,” he lies.

“You look kinda tired,” Toby says. “Maybe you should sit out today.”

“No, no, I’m on my way,” says Krel. He grabs his serrator and turns on his transduction. “Be there soon.”

He glances over the research one more time. Some of the figures blur, and he shakes his head. A few hours away will do him so good. A few hours of sleep would also do him some good, but he doesn’t have time for that.

He takes Aja’s hoverboard – his hoverboard now, Aja left it for him and he still forgets it’s his – because he’s already late and Nimue will murder him if he’s much later. He goes through downtown and hopes he won’t be attacked.

In his distraction he almost runs right into someone. He swerves to avoid them but loses balances and hits the ground. A foot stops his hoverboard while he sits up, and then a hand is offered to help him stand.

“Careful there,” says Seamus.

“Thanks,” Krel says. Seamus pulls him to his feet. His vision blacks out for a second, but he blinks a few times and it’s back. “Sorry.”

“You’re in a hurry,” Seamus says.

“Oh, no,” mutters Krel. “Yeah – I gotta go.”

Seamus laughs. “Alright, man, see you around, then.”

It’s probably the nicest interaction he’s had with the guy, if Krel thinks about it, but he doesn’t stay on it too long, instead hopping on his hoverboard and coasting the rest of the way to Mort’s shop. He doesn’t know the way to Nimue’s gym through the record shop, so he runs inside Mort’s and tears open the secret hatch.

“Good luck,” Douxie calls.

“Thanks!” he calls back, rushing down the stairs, then opening the secret bookcase entrance and running through there as well. He almost runs straight into Steve, who steadies him by the shoulders.

“Hey, I was just coming to get you,” he says. His brow furrows. “You okay, bro? You’re looking… kinda awful.”

“I am _fine_,” Krel insists. “Come on. We have training.”

“Yeesh, looks like someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed,” says Steve.

More like no side of the bed. Is there a wrong side? Akiridion beds don’t have a wrong side. Human beds must be very strange. Does his human bed have a wrong side? Which side is the wrong one?

“Krel, welcome,” says Ikram as he walks in. Nimue glares at him. He shrinks back and smiles awkwardly. She’s going to murder him. “We’re going to continue with spars, but this time, I want you to spar each other.”

The three of them exchange wary looks.

“Uh, I feel like that’ll end with one of us stabbed,” says Toby.

“I know,” says Ikram, which isn’t at all comforting until she nods to the wooden weapons on the ground. “That’s why I made you these. They might bruise, but you almost certainly can’t kill each other.”

“Almost certainly?” Steve repeats.

Her face falls into a deadpan. “Well, you three continuously amaze me, and not in a good way. So yes. Almost certainly.”

Toby picks up the wooden hammer. “Hey, it’s as light as my real one! Ha, I probably can’t even knock you out with this, Krel.”

“Ha-ha,” Krel says dryly.

“Alright, since Steve and Krel both use swords, I want you two sparring first,” says Ikram. “In the meantime, Toby is with me.”

Krel picks up one of the wooden swords. It has a different feel than his serrator, but he also won’t accidentally stab Steve in his sleep-deprived state, so it’s worth it. Steve tosses his from hand to hand.

“Ready to get your butt kicked, Tarron?” Steve challenges.

Krel laughs. “You’re on, Palchuk.”

The spread out and circle each other for a moment. It’s just Steve, which means Krel’s chances of winning have automatically shot upwards. If Steve gets overconfident enough, Krel is almost guaranteed to win.

“Krel?” Steve calls. Krel snaps back into focus. Steve looks concerned. “Uh, you okay? You blanked out on me for a second there.”

“I’m fine,” says Krel. “Let’s get started.”

“Alright,” he says slowly.

Krel takes initiative and runs towards his friend. Steve brings up his sword to parry Krel’s attack. Krel’s struck with another bout of dizziness, but ignores it to jump back and try to get another jab in at Steve. He dodges. Krel stumbles past him.

Krel starts to move, but he moves to fast or something because his vision darkens and he has to steady himself. Steve doesn’t catch this. By the time his vision is back, Steve is lunging. Krel can’t get reoriented in time to dodge and is instead met Steve’s wooden sword to his stomach. Oh. Good thing they didn’t use serrators. That’s going to leave a bruise but at least he isn’t going to die from it. He falls into a sitting position on the floor.

“Dead!” Steve calls, before grabbing Krel’s hand and pulling him up.

Dizziness floods Krel’s senses. Steve is talking, but he’s blurry and it’s getting dark. When Steve releases him, Krel has barely a second to think that maybe he should have slept, before he hits the gym floor and the world goes black.

“I’m going to _strangle him_.”

“I think the last thing he needs right now is for you to strangle him.”

“I’m gonna. And then I’ll have to explain to Aja why I strangled her brother.”

“We both know you’re not going to strangle Krel.”

“I am. And I’m going to shake him until he has some sense. And then I’ll strangle him some more.”

It’s incredibly weird that the first thing Krel wakes up to is Steve and Toby arguing about strangling him. He lets his mind wander for a second to debate whether Steve will actually strangle him if he fully wakes up, but decides that at the very least, Steve is too scared of Aja to do that. He opens one eye first. Steve and Toby aren’t looking at him, so he opens both.

“Why are you in my room?” he asks.

“Krel!” Toby shouts. Krel winces, and he lowers his voice. “You’re awake!”

“Yes,” says Krel. “And you’re in my room.”

“Yeah,” says Steve, voice tense. “We’re in your room. Because you passed out. _Passed out, Krel_! You scared the crap out of me! I thought I hurt you!”

Now it’s coming back to Krel. He really should have gotten sleep. Now his friends are mad at him because he scared them.

“And then we get Mort to help, and he tells us you haven’t slept in days,” Steve continues, pitch steadily raising. “_Days_! So it turns out, the minute we stop having sleepovers, you stop taking care of yourself! You have to sleep! Or did they not teach you that in Human 101?”

“I did not get a human one-oh-one,” Krel says. It comes out less sarcastic than he’d hoped. To his horror, his eyes burn. He didn’t mean to scare his friends or make them mad. And now they think he can’t take care of himself. Aja thought the same thing, really. Always protecting him from everything.

“You can’t just not sleep! That’s basic life skills, Krel! Is this going to be a regular thing? Do we need to call you every night and tell you to go to bed?”

Krel sniffles, then embarrassedly tries to hide it by forcing his expression to stay neutral. Toby looks alarmed and elbows Steve. He pauses and furrows his brow. Krel pointedly looks at his hands. If he ignores the liquid building up maybe it will go away. Or not. Krel angrily wipes away the traitorous tear that streaks down his cheek. Ugh. How do humans deal with their emotions being so physically obvious?

“Oh, no, no, no,” Steve stammers, waving his hands in front of him. “No, don’t cry. I’m not mad – well, I am mad – but not at you – well, yes, at you – what did I say?”

“I’m fine,” Krel mutters.

Steve looks at Toby with wide eyes. Toby glares at him and nods towards Krel. Krel scrubs his other cheek. He’s only making things worse by actually crying. Stupid wasteful human tears and stupid transduction for making him have them.

Steve awkwardly sits on the edge of the bed, then pulls Krel into an even more awkward hug.

“Uh, I’m sorry,” he says, then coughs. “Oh, that felt weird. I don’t normally _say_ that.”

“Steve,” Toby bites out.

Krel chuckles weakly. “It’s okay. I’m sorry for this.”

“No, no,” says Steve, clumsily patting him on the back. “You gotta cry, bro, then you gotta cry. See? We’re hugging it out. All good. Yeah?”

Krel manages another laugh. Steve pulls away and awkwardly moves back to his chair.

“Don’t make it weird,” he orders.

“Don’t worry, your reputation is safe,” says Krel, before pulling up his bedsheet to dry his cheeks.

“Look, what Steve was trying to say with all the angry yelling,” says Toby, shooting Steve an annoyed look, “is that we’re worried about you. It’s really unhealthy to go so long without sleep. Even Akiridions need sleep, don’t they?”

“They do. And it was an accident,” Krel says. By their expressions, this doesn’t help. “The other night, I found something in the woods. It would be – better if I showed you.”

He swings his legs over the edge of his bed and stands. He leads them back to his lab and starts pulling up some of his research and scans. Toby looks around at them in awe. Steve crosses his arms.

“I don’t get it,” he says. “What did you find?”

“This,” says Krel, stepping closer to show them Gaylen’s core. As he nears it, it brightens – a weird anomaly to go with all the other things he hasn’t figured out yet. Toby and Steve approach. Toby frowns at the core.

“Woah,” says Steve.

“Is that what I think it is?” Toby asks.

“It’s exactly what you think it is,” says Krel. Then he pauses. “What do you think it is?”

“Well, it _looks_ like Gaylen’s core,” says Toby, “but I thought you destroyed that.”

“So did I,” says Krel. “I stumbled across it in the forest. I couldn’t just leave it lying around for anyone to find, so I brought it back here. That’s why I kept forgetting to sleep – I’ve been studying this.”

Toby’s brow furrows. “I don’t know, man. This thing is dangerous.”

“Isn’t this the thing that made Morando go cuckoo-nut crazy?” Steve asks.

“Morando was already ‘cuckoo-nut crazy’,” Krel dismisses. “But yes, this is the thing that made him a god. And I think this is what I’ve been dreaming about.”

Both of their eyes widen.

“No way,” says Steve. “Nuh-uh, you are not keeping this thing in your house.”

“What? Why not?”

“We agreed the dreams were bad news!” Steve exclaims.

“No, we didn’t,” says Krel.

“The dreams were bad news!” Steve insists. He throws his hands out towards him. “And this thing is already making you light up like a Christmas decoration just standing next to it! Bad news.”

Krel frowns and looks at his hands. Huh. His glow is more noticeable than usual. Another anomaly.

“I hate to agree with Steve, but he’s right,” says Toby. “I don’t like this at all.”

“We should tell Aja,” says Steve. “Send it to Akiridion-5 and have them lock it up somewhere safe.”

“No!” Krel exclaims. “We’re not telling Aja. Besides, this might be able to help us! If I can figure out how to harness some of its powers in a safe way, we can use it against the new Knights and whoever they’re working for.”

“It’s too risky.” Steve grabs Krel by the shoulders and moves him away, switching their places and putting himself between Krel and Gaylen’s core. The core dims slightly in response. Krel swallows. Yeah. That’s definitely weird. “I get not telling Aja about the Knights, I do. But we have to lock this thing up.”

Steve does have a point. Gaylen’s core is dangerous. In the wrong hands, it could destroy the world. But in the right hands, _their_ hands, maybe it can save the world, instead. It’s not that Krel doesn’t trust the scientists on Akiridion-5, but he doesn’t know them. And if they just lock it up, then it’s of no use to anyone. If Krel can just figure out how to harness its power somehow, then they’ll stand a chance against this evil ancient wizard and his Knights.

“I’ll be careful,” he says, looking between his friends’ worried faces. “I can figure this out. I know I can. I’m asking you to trust me.”

Steve and Toby glance at each other. Steve’s shoulder slump and Toby nods.

“We do trust you,” he says.

“Just – promise us you won’t do anything stupid,” Steve demands.

Krel looks between his friends – to Toby whose face is drawn in worry and to Steve who looks ready to grab the core and call Aja himself – then to Gaylen’s core, still glowing faintly behind them.

“Alright,” he says. “I promise.”


	9. The Darkest Knight

Steve likes to think he’s doing pretty well at this whole magic thing. Lessons with Mort are finally starting to stray out of “beginner” and into “intermediate”, which is already way cooler. He’s just gotten out of another lesson, and he promised Coach he’d be home for dinner tonight – apparently he wants to try to make some sort of lasagna? Steve isn’t sure how much faith he has in that, but it makes Coach happy when he at least tries his food.

As he walks back in the dimming light of the late evening, he tries levitating his serrator over his hand. It’s still so cool that he has a serrator of his own. He’d brag about how good he is with it to Aja, except then she’d ask why he needs one and they’d be straying into no-go territory.

The serrator twitches and lifts into the air for a brief second, then flops back onto his palm. Steve tries to focus his attention better – clear mind and all that – and the serrator lifts several inches higher. This time, when it falls, Steve has to scramble to catch it. He is _not_ breaking the fancy alien weapon, oh, no.

And then he’s punched from behind by an armoured fist.

“Aagh!” he yelps, landing on his knees. He starts turning to face his attacker. “Ikram, what the – you’re not Ikram.”

“Clever boy,” says the Knight. He looms over Steve, tall and dressed in threatening black armour, all sharp edges and way scarier looking than Ikram ever was. Not that Steve would say that to her face. She’s still plenty scary. But this guy – oh, man, Steve does not want to mess with this guy. He has an _axe_. Steve doesn’t know how to fight someone with an _axe_.

“Not another one!” he exclaims, pushing himself to his feet and activating his serrator.

The Black Knight – yeah, he’s calling him that – laughs. “A wizardling with an alien weapon! Now that’s something you don’t see every day.”

“I know how to use it, too,” Steve boasts. He hopes he sounds more confident than he feels. “You don’t want to fight me.”

“Actually, I rather do,” says the Knight. He brings his axe down, and Steve leaps out of the way. The blade digs into the sidewalk. Steve gulps. He barely manages to throw up a shield as the Knight attacks again. He fumbles his phone out of his pocket and clicks the first contact he can. Please let this be Mort, please let this be Mort–

“Steve?” Aja’s voice comes through the speaker.

“Kleb!” Steve exclaims as the serrator shield sparks away and he has to roll on the asphalt to avoid being killed.

“What?”

“Nothing!” He scrambles backwards and screams as the axe comes down again between his legs. Oh, that was close. “Call Krel! Tell him it’s an emergency!”

“Steve, what’s wrong? What’s happening?”

He finally manages to push himself to his feet. He glances at the Knight, decides he’s screwed, and takes off running in the other direction.

“Tell him it’s the – the game!” Steve manages. “Wizards and – _aaah_!”

The axe flies right by his head and lands in a nearby fire hydrant. Steve pivots and runs across the street, avoiding the gushing water as the Knight yanks his axe free.

“Wizards and Warzones!” he yells into his phone. “Tell him it’s a Knight! He’ll know what that means!”

“Steve, are you okay?”

“JUST CALL KREL!” He hangs up and pockets his phone. The Knight is gaining fast. “Okay, new plan. New plan.”

He skids to a stop, then – mentally thanking Mort for starting his rune training early – draws a shielding rune in mid-air. His finger traces golden energy into existence, and he throws out his hands. A shimmering golden shield sparks into existence around him like a bubble. The Knight looks unimpressed – Steve is sure that under the helmet he’s scoffing or something. He brings his axe down on the shield. Steve flinches, but it holds. The bad news: it’s taking a lot of energy to keep it up, and he thinks the Knight knows that, because he starts determinedly hacking at the same spot.

“Come on, Krel, come on,” mutters Steve, before squeezing his eyes shut and focusing on keeping the shield up. He can feel every strike of the axe on the barrier – if it doesn’t stop soon, he’s done for.

Just as he’s sure the shield’s going to break, he hears the familiar sounds of both of his friends’ battle-cries. His eyes fly open just as Toby’s hammer makes contact with the Black Knight’s head. The Black Knight staggers, then laughs.

“Aw, the wizardling needed back-up from his friends!” he mocks. Steve bristles.

“Leave Steve alone, buttsnack,” Krel snaps. Steve is briefly proud of him, but then the Black Knight whips the flat of his axe around right into Krel’s head and he goes down.

“Hey!” Toby shouts, running at the Knight again.

Steve abandons his shield and runs to Krel, sitting up and rubbing his head. Toby is thrown into them, and all three of them hit the asphalt. The Black Knight looms over them for a second, then scoffs, turns, and walks away.

“Oh, that’s going to leave a mark,” mumbles Krel, rubbing his head. His fingers come back tinged with blue, and he leans his head back and groans.

“You good?” Toby checks.

“Yep,” says Krel. “Just a headache. Steve, did he hurt you?”

Steve shakes his head mutely. His hands and elbows are scraped from falling on the sidewalk, but he’s otherwise fine.

“Guess it’s another sleepover night,” he says shakily.

“Guess so,” says Toby. He stands first, then helps Steve and Krel to their feet.

“I’m sure my parents – I mean, Coach and Mom would be fine with you guys coming over,” says Steve. “Also, I promised Coach I’d be home for dinner and I’m late.”

“Sounds good,” says Toby. “I’ll call Nana on the way.”

Krel blinks a couple of times. He looks disoriented, so Steve prepares himself to steady him if need be. “Steve, Aja wants to know what exactly this wizard game is – hey, why did you call _Aja_?”

“I was blindly choosing a contact, it was an accident!” Steve defends himself.

“Well, you freaked her out,” says Krel.

“She knows I’m dramatic,” says Steve.

“Oh, he admits it,” says Toby.

Steve shoves his friend jokingly. “Shut up, Domzalski!”

“Hey, hey, don’t get your grimy, bloody hands on my shirt!” Toby complains.

“Come on,” says Krel. “The longer we stay out here, the more likely it is that Knight will come back.”

Steve winces. “Yeah. Let’s go.”

Coach and Mom were both understandably worried when they arrived, Steve all scraped up, Krel sporting a lump the size of Texas on his forehead. Steve almost told them the truth. Instead, he blurted some nonsense about a hoverboarding accident, and Krel agreed because he’d be a hypocrite not to. Toby just silently judged them both.

The next morning finds all three of them in Mort’s living room, along with Mort, Douxie, Ikram, and Nimue. Mort leans on the back of the couch, mouth pulled thin and brow furrowed.

“And you think he was targeting you specifically, Steve?” he prompts after they explain the attack.

“I don’t know,” says Steve. “Maybe I was the only one out and about alone, but he also left, like, right after Toby and Krel showed up.”

“Either way, now there’s _another_ Knight to deal with,” Toby says.

“I remember him,” says Ikram, leaning forward with her elbows on her thighs and resting her head on her joined fingers. “I technically reported to him. Now that I’ve been freed, he must be picking up my slack, so to speak.”

“He almost killed me!”

“Yes, well, the Black Knight won’t be nearly as merciful as I was,” says Ikram.

Krel scowls dubiously at her and flexes his right hand, finally unbraced only a day ago. Steve and Toby dragged him to Dr. Lake to be certain he was fine, because Steve didn’t really trust the Akiridion not to lie and say he was better when he wasn’t.

“You were _merciful_?” Krel says doubtfully.

“I didn’t kill you, did I?” she points out. “And trust me. I could have. We need to up your training.”

Oh. Great. Even more training. Like Steve’s days aren’t already 95% training, be it in combat or in magic. Not that he doesn’t love learning magic, but he does wish he had a break.

“First, we need to make them impossible to find,” says Mort. “Training is great and all, but it’s better if they don’t have to use it. I’ll whip up some more potions to hide you from tracking, but we also have to assume that he knows where you live. Do you three have other friends? People you can stay with?”

Steve is somewhat offended that Mort thinks his only friends are Toby and Krel. “Yeah, I can ask one of my friends.”

“I can probably stay with Dr. L,” says Toby. “Maybe the Nuñez family if I _really_ push it.”

“Uh, I can stay with Stuart,” says Krel. He doesn’t look thrilled. Steve knows it’s nothing against Stuart, only that Stuart and his place kinda stink.

“Good,” says Mort. “Steve, I think it’s time I taught you some potion-making skills.”

Steve brightens. They weren’t supposed to start potions for another week. “Wait, really?”

“Yes, really,” says Mort. “Text your friend to see if you can stay, then follow me downstairs so we can get started.”

“The rest of you, training,” says Nimue. “You’re still miserable at this.”

Toby and Krel both groan in unison, but a sharp glare from Nimue shuts them up. Steve takes a second to decide which friend to stay with, but ultimately pulls up Seamus’s number and texts a quick, _hey mind if I crash at yours tonight?_

A few moments later, he gets back, _sure man mom wants to know if you’re coming for dinner_

Steve texts back a _dunno yet thanks man_, then pockets his phone and follows Mort down the stairs to the shop. The others follow. Douxie yawns but sticks on a nametag as the rest of them climb down to the library. Steve follows Mort back into his potions lab.

“Now, potions are in many ways vastly different from other forms of magic,” says Mort. “We’ll be sticking to recipes today, but in the future, I’ll be teaching you about all the ingredients and their properties so you can experiment. It’s a lot like cooking or baking, except more likely to explode.”

“Explode?” Steve says warily.

“Drop the wrong thing in, or the right thing in the wrong amount…” Mort makes an explosion noise and throws his hands open. He grins like this is funny. It’s not. Mort coughs awkwardly. “Right, well, as long as you follow the recipe exactly, I guarantee it won’t blow up.”

“Okay,” says Steve slowly. “So where do we start?”

Mort throws out a hand, and a book flies into it. Steve is impressed and also can’t wait to learn that trick. “Hm. We’ll want to shield you from magical tracking as well as mundane tracking. Another core-hiding potion for Krel, just in case. So three potions. Maybe four, just to be on the safe side. Aha!”

He places the open book on a nearby music stand – improvisation, Steve supposes. The book looks fairly old, but that doesn’t surprise Steve. It kind of goes with the wizard aesthetic. He thinks he’s using that word right.

“Exact measurements and timings are very important in potion-making,” says Mort. “Even if they’re very weird, you can’t just round them up. Once you’re more experienced and know the ingredients well, you might be able to make changes, but never do that unless you’re in a well-ventilated environment and you’re standing far away.”

“Uh, is this a well-ventilated environment?” Steve asks. Mort blinks and looks around.

“Oh, yes.” He reaches up and presses a spot on the wall. A rune lights up bronze, then fades. “Now it is. But we won’t be experimenting today.”

“Right,” says Steve. He feels even less confident now.

“I keep all of my ingredients properly labelled,” says Mort. “Can you fetch me… elder berries, tanner’s bark, blood of Hephaestus, and peppermint extract?”

Steve stares at him. “Blood of _who now_?”

“Oh, yes, I know it’s an outdated name for wormwood,” says Mort, rolling his eyes. “You young wizards and your want to use normal names. Where’s your enthusiasm?”

“I am so confused,” says Steve, but he goes over to Mort’s ingredient cabinet and searches for the requested ingredients anyway. Mort starts filling a pot with water, then sets it on the stove. He walks over to the mini-fridge and starts searching it. Steve finally finds all four ingredients and manages to carry the jars and extract vial back to the counter near the stove. He’s very glad that blood of Hephaestus isn’t actual blood. Mort returns with a jug of milk and some other unknown, dark substance. Eugh. Steve doesn’t want to know what that is.

“Right, then,” says Mort. “Now we have our ingredients, it’s time to begin.”

Steve rubs his hands together. “Alright! What’s first?”

“As soon as the water’s boiling, we want to add five crushed elder berries,” says Mort. “So, if you’ll grab a mortar and pestle and crush those, I’ll start preparing the tanner’s bark for step two.”

Steve nods, then realises he doesn’t know what that means. “Uh, what’s a mortar and pestle?”

Mort raises both eyebrows. “It’s over on that counter. The small bowl with the – crushing thing.”

“Gotcha,” says Steve. He finds the mortar and pestle easy enough, then picks out five of the juiciest elder berries he can find in the jar and drops them in. Heh, he’s not too bad at this. It’s just smashing berries so far.

“Boiling!” says Mort. “Scrape them out with a spoon and dump them in. Don’t stir yet.”

“On it!” Steve makes sure he gets every last bit of smushed berry and dumps them into the boiling water. A few moments later, Mort drops several strips of tanner’s bark into the pot and then stirs.

“Ten times, clockwise,” he says. “Not too fast. If you go too fast, you risk messing it up.”

Steve nods. “So, like, are any of these ingredients, like, magical? Like, what makes the potions magic?”

“That’s our influence,” says Mort. “Most potions require an activator. For some, it’s a rune application – like I did with the core-hiding potion. Most of these will be rune applications. Others have to be activated with a spell – usually the ones you drink. Most injected potions require a double activator, first a spell and then contact with blood. Then, some potions don’t require magical activators but do need energy activators. Most commonly used is electricity. In the old days, it had to be captured in a jar and the finalised potion poured in. Nowadays we have tech for that.”

That’s – actually pretty cool. Steve takes a peek at the recipe book as Mort starts pouring the weird, dark liquid into a measuring cup. Step four – the next step – says to add four drops of peppermint extract, in a circle, counter-clockwise. That’s oddly specific, but it looks like all of potion-making is. Steve’s surprised to admit to himself it’s kind of fun.

He draws peppermint extract into a syringe. Mort slowly pours the dark liquid into the pot, then turns. “Alright, now we need – oh, you’ve prepared it. Well done. Why don’t you give it a shot?”

Steve blinks, then nods and switches places with Mort. He winces, then very carefully starts adding the peppermint extract. Drop – move around to the right – drop – again to the right – drop – once more – drop. He moves the syringe immediately away from the pot, so he doesn’t add an extra drop on accident.

“Well done,” says Mort. “Now, stir it in the same direction as you added the drops – five times, quickly.”

Steve does so. He’s very careful not to overdo it. The last thing he wants is to ruin the potion – or worse, have it explode on him. Mort pours milk into a glass, then submerges a handful of wormwood – blood of Hephaestus – whatever in it. He sets a timer on his phone.

“Alright, we wait,” he says. “In the meantime, we can start preparing–“

“Steve! Mort!” Both of them look at the door as Krel pokes his head in. He looks sheepish. “Do you have any more of that core-hiding potion? I have to go talk to Stuart, he isn’t answering his phone.”

“Well, we can in a few minutes,” says Mort. “Steve, keep an eye on that potion while I make this one for Krel. When the timer goes off, just dump all that in.”

Steve gives him a thumbs-up, then whirls on Krel. “You can’t go alone. What if the Black Knight finds you?”

“He won’t,” says Krel. “Not with that potion. And this.”

He smugly holds up his serrator and presses a button. His form flickers, and then it’s replaced with an unremarkable, unrecognisable blond, white teenager. He’s almost as tall as Steve. Even on the unfamiliar face, Steve can make out Krel’s self-satisfied expression. “Huh, maybe I should keep my height like this.”

“No way,” says Steve. “It’s weird.”

Krel cackles. The timer sounds, and Steve glares at Krel and grabs the cup of milk and wormwood. He pours it into the pot, then glances quickly at the instructions. Stir clockwise rapidly fifteen times. Okay, he can do that.

“You have to promise not to be stupid,” says Steve as he stirs. “I don’t want to be waiting for you to come back and then see on the news that some random kid was murdered by a crazy guy with an axe.”

“Relax, Steve, I’ll be fine,” says Krel.

“Stop mothering your friend, Steve,” says Mort. Steve splutters in indignation. “Krel, come here. I’ve got to put the rune on.”

Krel obediently lifts up his t-shirt and lets Mort draw the rune on his chest. Steve does not _mother_ him. Steve doesn’t mother anyone. Does he? He better not, he has a reputation to hold up.

“Thanks, Mort,” says Krel.

“Text me when you get there!” Steve demands as he leaves. Oh, no, he’s totally mothering him. “Not that I care! Because I don’t!”

“Sure, Steve!” Krel calls back sarcastically.

Steve huffs and looks through the recipe book again. Oh, crap, he needs to turn off the heat like now. He moves the pot back a burner and turns off the front one. Now it says to let it rest for thirty minutes. Okay. That’s easy.

“Nicely done,” says Mort, pouring the rest of the core-hiding potion into a plastic container. “This can be microwaved, by the way. Some potions can’t, but this one is good.”

“Uh, okay,” says Steve.

Mort gives him an appraising look. “Why don’t you do this next one by yourself? That way we can get two potions done at once.”

“What?” Steve squeaks. “Me? But – it might explode!”

“Or it might not,” says Mort. “If it’s rubbish, then we won’t use it, but you’ve been doing well. I think you’re a natural-born potioneer.”

Steve preens. Heh, yeah, he guesses he’s pretty good at this. He can totally do a potion by himself. It’ll be fun. Mort flips the book to a recipe and nods to it. Steve cracks his knuckles. He can totally do this.

Making his own potion goes… pretty well, actually. There’s a couple of times he almost messes up, but ultimately, Mort deems the final product satisfactory. All three of them get the runes drawn on them, then Krel updates Steve’s serrator and gives Toby a mini-transduction device. Their disguises aren’t nearly as good, since they can’t be physically changed like Krel can, but Steve still can’t recognise himself when he looks in the mirror and sees dark hair and tan skin. Toby also looks weird, red hair turned brown and dweeby glasses perched on his nose.

Steve really hopes Seamus doesn’t ask too many questions. He knocks hesitantly on his friend’s front door. He hears footsteps, then Seamus yanks the door open. His brow furrows immediately.

“It’s me,” Steve says, hoping his friend can recognise his voice.

“Steve!?”

“Shh!” Steve hisses.

“Come on in,” says Seamus. “Uh, you look… nothing like you.”

As soon as he’s safe inside and the blinds are all drawn, Steve deactivates the transduction effect and sits on the couch. Seamus joins him and waves a hand to prompt him to explain.

“Krel rigged this up for me,” Steve says. “We needed disguises.”

“Disguises?” repeats Seamus, brow furrowing. “Dude, seriously, _what_ have you gotten yourself into?”

“It’s just – weird stuff.”

“Like the trolls?” prompts Seamus. “Or, I dunno, like – like Krel?”

Steve bristles on his friend’s behalf. “Krel isn’t _weird_, okay, he’s just – different! That’s all.”

Seamus holds out his hands and shakes his head. “No, no, I just – is it an alien thing? Sorry. Extra-terrestrial thing? ‘Cause if it is, then I want in. You know I love space stuff, man.”

“It’s not space stuff,” says Steve. He wishes it were space stuff. At least he has some experience with space stuff, and maybe then Krel would let them call Aja. “It’s just – complicated. Weird. Hey, man, thanks for letting me crash here until we figure things out.”

“No problem, bro,” says Seamus. “If there’s anything I can do to help, just let me know.”

“Thanks, Seamus,” Steve says.

Seamus smiles, then leans back and crosses his arms. Steve can’t tell whether he’s worried or not, but he’d guess he is. “I’m guessing Krel and Domzalski are mixed up in this, too?”

“Yep,” says Steve. “We’re all just playing it by ear. Oh, hey, but check out what Krel gave me.”

He stands and activates the serrator sword. Seamus’s jaw drops. Steve smirks and shows off some attacks, then switches it to blaster mode to show him that too.

“Real life Akiridion tech,” says Steve.

“Can I see it?” Seamus asks. Steve passed him the deactivated serrator. A moment later, Seamus manages to switch it back to blaster mode. Unfortunately, he’s not as skilled at it as Steve is, and the blaster goes off, leaving an ugly scorch mark on the wall. Seamus’s eyes widen in horror.

“SEAMUS!” his mom calls from the other room. “You and Steve better not being playing with anything explosive!”

“Sorry, Mom!” Seamus shouts back. “We’ll put it away!”

“You better!”

Seamus shoves the serrator back at Steve, then points at the scorch mark. “That was already there.”

“Definitely,” agrees Steve. “Should we go help your mom with dinner?”

“Nah, she’s one of those people who hates other people in her kitchen,” says Seamus. He nods his head towards the stairs. “Wanna go upstairs and play video games?”

“Now that sounds like just the dose of normalcy I need right now,” Steve agrees.

The two of them settle for some mindless war game they don’t have to think too much to play. Steve likes having a break. It’s nice to at least pretend to be a normal teenager for a little bit. He has nothing against the wizard stuff, or the Akiridion stuff, or even the troll stuff, but he does kind of miss the days when he could just hang out with people without any supernatural things out to kill him and his friends. Even now he’s on edge that the Black Knight will show up at any moment, putting Seamus and his mom in danger. They don’t deserve to be dragged into this. Steve would never forgive himself if one of his friends got killed because of his mess.

“You know,” says Seamus. “This summer has definitely been the most eventful one we’ve ever had.”

“That’s not a good thing,” says Steve.

“Maybe not,” says Seamus. “Not really bad, either. I mean, I got to laugh at all the people who thought I was nuts for believing in aliens.”

“No one’s made fun of you for that since sixth grade, man.”

“But they _used to_,” says Seamus. “And I was _right_. Aliens are real! And now I’m friends with one of them.”

That’s unexpected. Steve never saw Seamus hang out with Aja, and the only time he saw Seamus and Krel together was that math duel thing. “Really? Who?”

“Krel.”

Steve snorts. Part of him isn’t surprised. Krel and Seamus both love math and stuff, they’d be good friends. Still, Seamus considering Krel a friend is news to Steve and almost certainly would be news to Krel. “Dude, I think you need to tell Krel that.”

“Huh?” Seamus glances over at him, then back to the TV. “What do you mean?”

“I mean, if you’re friends with Krel, he doesn’t know it,” Steve says. “Hey, I thought you hated him.”

“What? No,” says Seamus. “I mean, I got kinda annoyed that he was one-upping me in math class. And then I let my dad rub off on me. Not one of my prouder moments… okay, I can see why you thought I hated him.”

“Since when are you friends?” Steve hopes this isn’t just because Krel is Akiridion. Still, he knows Seamus better than that. When he actually manages to ignore his dad, he’s a good guy. Not that Steve would ever say something sentimental like that out loud.

“Well, maybe more like acquaintances,” muses Seamus. “School friends. I dunno.”

“Again, might want to tell Krel that.” Steve pauses to shoot a few enemies on the screen. “Anyway, I guess it is pretty cool that extra-terrestrials are real.”

“And trolls!” exclaims Seamus. “Man, I never would have imagined. Sucks that they all had to leave.”

“You think Logan’s right?” Steve prompts, aware he’s getting way too close to a forbidden subject. Seamus gives him a confused look. “About what’s next. Wizards or something.”

Seamus scoffs. “Nah, man. I’ll believe a lot of crazy things now, but wizards? No way. It’s probably something like… I dunno, pixies.”

“Pixies are real,” says Steve. “Jim told me about them. Remember that day we all, like, totally hallucinated our worst fears or something? Yeah. Pixies.”

“Huh. That makes sense,” Seamus mutters. Steve isn’t sure how that makes much sense, actually, but whatever floats Seamus’s boat. “Whatever it is you’re hiding, we’ll find out eventually.” Then, after a pause: “Is it wizards?”

Steve laughs awkwardly. “No, no, no. It’s not – no, you’re right, that’s super crazy.”

Seamus gives him a dubious look. “Alright. Well, we’ll know by the end of the summer. Mark my words. Nothing stays a secret in this town anymore.”

That, Steve can’t argue at all.

Seamus offers to walk with Steve to Mort’s, not that he’s aware Steve’s going to Mort’s. Steve kinda figures that would risk exposing all this wizard stuff to Seamus, so he declines. He’s pretty sure there’s some rule against telling mundane people about magic.

It’s a really nice morning, but it’s kind of early so not many people are out and about. He doesn’t run into any trouble on the walk. Unfortunately for Steve, when he reaches Mort’s shop, the Black Knight is already there, waiting for him. So much for not running into trouble. Steve freezes.

Okay, Steve, be smart. Maybe awkwardly tell him his cosplay looks cool and keep walking. Pretend you don’t know him.

Even more unfortunately, the transduction chooses that moment to flicker and die. Steve is left standing right in front of the Knight looking just like himself and also just like a deer in the headlights.

“Wizardling,” greets the Black Knight.

“Oh, no,” Steve manages.

Okay, options, Steve has options. Calling for help is a good option. But then he remembers what the Knight had said before, taunting him about needing back-up. He could maybe take him. Could he take him?

His hesitation costs him. Before he can react properly, the side of the Knight’s axe connects with the side of his head. Steve hits the ground, dazed and dizzy. He tries to pull out his serrator to shield himself, but the Knight brings his armoured foot down on Steve’s wrist. Steve yelps and unwillingly drops the serrator. The Knight kicks him hard in the ribs.

“I don’t even need this to kill you,” says the Knight, laying his axe down on the sidewalk. Steve tries to start drawing a shielding rune, but he’s thrown back into confusion by a kick to the head. He blinks stars out of his vision.

The Knight brings his foot down hard on Steve’s shin. There’s a sharp snapping sound and blinding pain. Steve screams. When he goes to get another breath, he finds his breathing constricted by the Knight’s foot on his chest.

“Pathetic,” he scorns, digging his boot downward. Steve gasps and struggles. “I can see why you needed back-up.”

The Black Knight lifts his foot and then brings it down hard on Steve’s chest. There’s more snapping sounds, more sharp pains. Steve coughs and tastes metal. Metal? No. Blood tastes metallic? Oh. It’s blood. That’s not good. His vision is blurry and he’s still disoriented by the blows to the head.

The Knight leans down and picks Steve up by his neck. Steve’s hands go to pry his hand away, but his grip tightens, and Steve _can’t breathe_. He ignores the pain flaring from his leg as he kicks out and struggles.

“Hey!” he hears Mort call, finally. Steve’s vision is darkening at the edges. His lungs burn for air and his leg throbs with his heartbeat. He’s barely aware of Mort’s hands lighting up with focusers, barely aware of the spell hitting the Black Knight, barely aware of himself hitting the concrete. He thinks he hears his friends calling his name. He coughs and gasps for air. Huh. What’re those red spots on the sidewalk? He coughs more, pain spreading from his ribs. Why can’t he breathe right?

“Steve, stay with me,” says Toby’s voice, detached and fuzzy. Steve tries to look up at his friend, but dizziness overcomes him. The world spins and disappears into black.


	10. Knightly Training

Toby has officially decided he hates hospitals. He hates the smell of them, he hates the machines beeping and humming, and he especially hates seeing a friend laid up in the hospital bed. Steve looks smaller than Toby ever imagined he could look, unconscious, bandages wrapped around his head, left leg in a cast, hooked up to tubes and wires. Toby can barely stand to see him like this.

It’s their fault. Toby should have known better than to let them split up. He’s supposed to be the veteran at this stuff, the one who knows what he’s doing. Maybe if Steve hadn’t been alone, this wouldn’t have happened. And then if they’d realised sooner, gotten down sooner, then maybe it wouldn’t have been so bad. They didn’t even know there was a fight outside until they’d heard Steve scream, and by then it was too late to prevent the worst of it.

Toby and Krel have both been in Steve’s hospital room since they were allowed in, and Mort joined soon afterwards. Coach Lawrence and Steve’s mom have been there even longer, except Steve’s mom had to leave earlier for work. Krel finally fell asleep about an hour ago, after refusing to take a nap since yesterday morning’s attack. In a different situation, seeing him leaned up asleep against Mort’s side like this might have been kind of adorable. Toby still takes a picture.

“He’ll probably wake up soon,” says Dr. Lake as she writes something on her clipboard. She glances up and meets Toby’s eyes, brow furrowed worriedly. “I know this is a lot, but if you kids need help, you can always come to Walt and I. We have some experience, too, you know.”

“I know,” says Toby. “Thanks, Dr. L.”

“Alright, I have to go check on some other patients,” she says. “You know how to reach me.”

She leaves the room. Coach shifts in his chair.

“So, run this by me again,” he says. “Wizards?”

“Yep,” says Toby.

Coach sighs and leans back. “You know, when I was your age, all we had to worry about was whether we were going to regionals for football, not – apocalypses and magic and crazy knights.”

“Believe me, Coach, I wish our summer could be more like that,” admits Toby.

“I’m doing all I can to protect your son,” says Mort. He keeps his voice low so he doesn’t wake Krel. “I take full responsibility for this. I should have expected an attack and prepared accordingly.”

“From what I hear, it wasn’t your fault,” Coach says.

Krel shifts in his sleep. Mort shifts accordingly to accommodate him.

“Still,” he says. “I’m sorry.”

“Mort’s teaching Steve magic,” Toby says. He would hate for Coach to get a bad impression of Mort from this. It’s not really Mort’s fault. And Toby knows, honestly, it’s not really his fault, either, even if it feels like it. “It’s really cool! Steve’s a natural.”

“I bet he is!” Coach boasts. Mort nods to Krel, unconsciously curling away from the noise, and Coach shrinks back and lowers his voice. “You know, bad stuff aside, it’s really neat, this wizard stuff.”

“He’s talented,” agrees Mort. “I’ve been very impressed with his progress.”

Ugh. Now it’s starting to sound like a parent-teacher conference. Toby tunes them out and shifts his attention away and back to Steve. It could have been worse. Toby tries to comfort himself with that, except that only brings up graphic images of Steve with his head chopped off or Steve in a dozen bloody pieces strewn across the concrete. Curse his brain for being so vividly imaginative!

Steve’s hand twitches. Toby waves a hand at the others, still in the midst of the impromptu parent-teacher conference, and Steve moans softly and his face scrunches. A few moments later, he opens his eyes and blinks several times and stares at the ceiling.

“Where…?” he manages, voice hoarse from disuse. He turns his head to Coach’s side. “Dad?”

“Hey, son,” Coach chokes out. “You had us worried there. Take it easy.”

“What happened?”

“Do you remember?” Toby prompts softly. “The Black Knight?”

Steve turns to look at him. Recognition dawns on his face, followed quickly by frustration. He groans. “Aw, man, guys, I messed up. I messed up big time.”

“It’s alright, Steve,” says Mort. “It wasn’t your fault.”

“We told Coach, by the way,” adds Toby.

Steve winces and turns his head again towards Coach. “Are you mad?”

“I’m not mad,” says Coach. “I wish you woulda told me, but I’m not mad.”

“Well, m’a wizard, Dad,” Steve says. He huffs out a laugh. “Me! I’m a wizard!”

“That’s right, you are,” says Coach. “And I’m real proud of you.”

For Steve’s sake, Toby pretends not to see the tears well in his friend’s eyes and he blurts, “Thanks, Dad.”

Steve tries to push himself up on his elbows. Toby leaps out of his chair to help adjust the hospital bed so he can sit up. Steve grunts out a thanks. He stares at the blue cast on his leg forlornly, then glances back over to Toby, Mort, and the still-sleeping Krel. Man, Krel isn’t going to be happy they didn’t wake him right away, but also he must be fast asleep and Toby doubts Steve wants them to wake him.

“I’m sorry, guys,” he says. “I should have called you right away and then I wouldn’t be in this mess.”

“Yes, you should have,” says Mort. “And in the future, I expect you to. The Black Knight nearly killed you. If we’d gotten out there a minute later, he would have. You’re lucky.”

Steve swallows. “Yeah. I guess I am.”

“We’re not splitting up again,” says Toby. “That was clearly a bad idea.”

“Ikram wants to up your training,” says Mort. “Again. I’m honestly not sure how many more times she _can _up it, but she’ll manage it.”

“Oh, boy,” says Toby.

“Even better news,” Coach butts in. “I’m gonna be helping!”

Toby and Steve exchange wide-eyed, horrified looks.

“Oh, no,” says Toby.

“That’s right, Domzalski, I bet you thought you were done with me for the summer!” Coach exclaims. “Well, too bad!”

Toby groans and collapses into his chair. As if training with Ikram and Nimue wasn’t bad enough already. With Coach there? Toby kind of wishes he was the one laid up in the hospital bed.

“So, uh,” says Steve awkwardly, “how long was I out?”

“Well, it’s about… noon,” says Mort, glancing at his watch. Steve relaxes. “And this was yesterday morning, so a bit over twenty-four hours.”

“Twenty-four hours!?” Steve squeaks, all relaxation fleeing him instantly.

“You were beat up pretty badly,” says Toby. “You probably would have been out longer if Mort hadn’t, you know, magicked you better.”

“I didn’t magic him better,” says Mort. “I just used magical healing to help the process along. I’m not nearly good enough to magic him better.”

“Keep quiet about it,” says Toby. “Dr. L doesn’t know.”

Mort grimaces, then nods to Steve’s leg. “Lucky for you, this means your leg will heal in about half the time. Most of the energy went to helping your ribs and lungs.”

Steve’s eyes widen and he pats his chest. “Wait, what’s wrong with my lungs?”

“Nothing, anymore,” says Mort. “But you’re going to want to take it easy for a bit. I guess that won’t be hard, you’ll need to stay off that leg anyway.”

“What _was _wrong with my lungs!?”

“Look, Steve, buddy, you were pretty messed up,” says Coach. His furrowed brow is the only thing that gives away how worried he’d been – and, man, Coach had been worried. Toby could never forget his face when he got to the hospital, when the doctors told him what all was wrong with Steve – he’d never thought he’d have sympathy for _Coach_ of all people, but his expression had hurt to see. “What’s important is that you’re gonna be okay.”

Steve nods. “Right, right – just kinda freaked me out there.”

“Freaked us all out, man,” says Toby. He nods towards a still-sleeping Krel. “Good job, you made Krel cry twice in the same week.”

Steve grimaces. “Great. How much longer am I in for?”

“Probably a few more days,” says Mort. Steve sighs in frustration. “Hey, think of it as a break. There’s going to be somebody on guard at all times to make sure the Black Knight doesn’t return to, uh, finish the job. Meanwhile, Toby and Krel here will have to be training.”

Coach brought his fist to his other palms. “Oh, yeah. We’re gonna whip you kids into shape!”

Steve gives Toby a pitying look. Toby just groans. It’s going to be a long few days.

Steve is released after about a day and a half with strict orders to take it easier and keep weight off his leg. Toby can tell he’s already completely and utterly done with the crutches he has to use. Unfortunately, now that Steve’s out of the hospital, Toby and Krel don’t have any excuse to get out of training. They’d been using, “We want to go check on Steve, we’re worried about him.” That won’t fly anymore.

Ikram has looked frustrated ever since Steve got the crap beaten out of him. She paces in Mort’s library, already in armour for training.

“The Black Knight is brutish but clever,” she says. “We must be prepared for him. We’re doubling down on training for all of you. No more excuses.”

“Wait, wait,” says Steve. “You want me training too? I’m injured! I’m on crutches!”

“Use them to your advantage,” she says flatly.

“I have a broken leg!”

“Actually, Barbara said it was fractured,” corrects Krel. “She said that is not the same thing.”

“Shut up, Krel!”

“Actually, Steve, you’re going to be working with me,” says Mort. “We’re going to be working on strengthening your shielding and protection spells.”

Steve slumps back into his chair in relief. Once again, Toby wishes he had magic. It would get him out of training _and _it would be super cool. Ikram opens the bookcase door, and Toby and Krel reluctantly follow her and Nimue through it.

“So what exactly does doubling down entail?” asks Toby. “I mean, I feel like we’ve been training for weeks now and I’m not sure how we can _double down_.”

“Previously, Nimue and I have been largely been ensuring you don’t get yourselves kill,” says Ikram. “Clearly, that is not enough. And now your trio is down a fighter for the foreseeable future. We will be teaching you more of the offensive. From here on, I expect much of your defence will come from Steve.”

“Seriously? We’re depending on Steve for defence?” Krel scoffs. “No, thank you. I would rather stick to defensive fighting anyway.”

“Defensive fighting won’t be enough.”

“That means no running away this time, Krel,” says Nimue.

Krel crosses his arms. “I wasn’t running away.”

Ikram waves a hand at him. “Do you fight better in this form or your other one? Because that is going to vastly change how we teach you.”

“He doesn’t really fight good in any form,” says Toby.

“Hey!” protests Krel, even though Toby’s completely right. Nonetheless, he turns off the transduction. “Probably like this.”

“Good, then,” says Ikram. “You’re with Nimue first. Toby, with me.”

Toby follows Ikram to one side of the fairly large gym, and Krel splits off to the other. Coach stands in the centre like a referee. He hasn’t actually been much help the past couple of days, but Toby thinks Ikram feels bad for him and that’s why she lets him stick around.

“Now, I’ll admit I know very little about war-hammers,” says Ikram. “I did search it up on the internet. The internet was not helpful. So we’re going to wing it.”

“Sounds good,” says Toby.

“As I understand it, your war-hammer has some sort of spell on it,” she notes. “Elaborate?”

“Uh, it’s an anti-gravity thing,” says Toby. “I couldn’t lift it at first, but – it’s a long story. Anyway, it makes it easier to carry and also I can fly with it.”

Her eyebrows shoot up. “You can fly? Well, that’s very good to know. We’re going to incorporate that into your fighting style.”

“Oh, yeah!” Toby exclaims.

“Okay, give me a lap around the gym,” says Ikram. “In the air.”

Toby should note that’s not entirely sure how to steer his war-hammer. Ikram nods expectantly. He shoves his war-hammer towards the far wall and lets it carry him into the air and away from Ikram. Okay, turning, how does he turn? He’s turned before, hasn’t he? Ugh, but that’s under pressure, and things just happen under pressure, and – wall! Wall!

He manages to get his hammer to turn in mid-air and not hit the wall. The next wall rapidly approaches. Okay, how did he do that? And can he do it again? Okay, Toby, come on, Toby. He wills the hammer to turn and hope willpower works.

It does. Toby lets out a triumphant whoop and continues back to the other side of the gym. He should really do this more often. Flying is kinda fun. Hey, maybe Strickler can give him lessons. Does he really want lessons with _Strickler_, though?

He lands back where he started and twirls his hammer. To his glee, he also doesn’t drop it.

“Hm,” says Ikram. “Interesting. And how much control do you have? Because, quite frankly, it looked like next to none.”

“That would be unfortunately correct,” Toby admits.

“We’re going to work on that,” she says. “Do you know why extremely powerful wizards often have the advantage in battle?”

“Uh, because magic?”

“Because they can stay airborne.” Ikram draws her sword and holds it to the sky. “A warrior on the ground only has a certain range of motion. Stay outside it, and they can’t hurt you. Even other wizards are at a disadvantage. Ranged spells still need decent aim, and flying makes dodging much easier.”

“Someone should probably teach Krel how to fly, then,” Toby says, jerking a thumb towards Krel, currently getting pummelled by Nimue.

“Flight will also allow _you_ more chances to attack, and more sides to attack from,” she continues. “And believe me. An enemy approaching from above is intimidating.”

“Yes,” hisses Toby.

“It brings your intimidation factor from a zero out of ten to a one out of ten,” she adds.

“What? Come on!”

“Maybe a two.”

“Only the most powerful wizards can fly,” says Ikram. “I’ve known of three of them. Merlin, Morgana, and Mordred. I’m sure there have been others.”

Toby’s met two of those wizards, and he’s not fond of either. He wonders if one day Steve will be a strong enough wizard to fly. Now that’s a hilarious image to think about.

“Almost a shame we can’t call Merlin to help teach me,” Toby jokes.

“Call Merlin?” she repeats. “Merlin’s dead.”

“Hate to break it to you,” says Toby, “but Merlin’s still alive and flying. He’s with my buddy Jim right now. Morgana’s also still alive. Stuck in the Shadow Realm. Yep, that was our doing.”

“Great, more immortal wizards, just what we need,” she mutters. “Alright, in the air. We’re going to figure out how you fly this thing.”

Toby shoots back into the air. He has no idea how long he can actually hang up here. “So, usually I just throw it kinda and don’t let go? And it drags me with it.”

“And does that work in mid-air?”

“We can find out,” says Toby. He reels back and tries to throw the hammer across the room. To his surprise and excitement, it works, and he goes flying towards the opposite wall. He cackles and yanks back to skid to a stop in mid-air, then throws the hammer in the other direction, then back the other. “Hey, this is working great!”

“Excellent,” calls Ikram. “Stay right there.”

Toby shrugs to himself and continues flying around the room. He’s really getting the hang of this, actually. Then, a few minutes later, when he’s not at all paying attention, he gets hit in the face with a tennis ball.

“Hey!” he yelps.

“Your enemies may have ranged weapons!” Ikram throws another ball at him, and he swerves out of the way. “Also, the Black Knight can throw his axe.”

“Oh, great!” Toby exclaims. Man, Ikram has good aim. He dodges another two balls and gets hit with another three, then manages to hit the sixth back at Ikram.

“Good!” she praises. “Now try to actually hit me!”

Toby groans. Several more tennis balls get chucked at him. It’s a lot like trying to play baseball while hovering in mid-air, which sucks because Toby has never been good at baseball. He tried for a while in elementary school. It didn’t go well. Jim was way better than he was. Not surprising. Jim always been way better at everything, except maybe video games. Toby can claim video games.

“Try and attack me!” Ikram stops throwing balls for a moment to lean down and grab her helmet to put on. She gives him a thumbs-up, then continues throwing tennis balls at him. Toby dodges the first few, then yells as threateningly as he can and throws his hammer towards Ikram. It does a decent job protecting him from the balls. Ikram dives out of the way. Toby manages to get the hammer to pull up just in time, but doesn’t manage to get it to stop and crashes into the wall.

“Ow,” he mumbles.

“Not bad,” Ikram says. “Make a note that your hammer won’t protect you nearly as well from spells, nor will it protect you from a flying axe. But if anyone’s throwing small rocks at you, you should be good.”

“Ugh,” Toby groans.

Ikram grabs a dodgeball laying at the side of the wall and tosses it up and down with one hand. He can’t see her face, but he knows she’s smug.

“Again,” she says.

Oh, this is going to hurt.

They finally stop for lunch after both Toby and Krel have thoroughly gotten their butts whooped. They probably wouldn’t have even stopped if Mort hadn’t dropped in to tell them Douxie brought lunch over from Benoit’s.

They ate in the library for Steve’s sake. He’s apparently been training in another room of Nimue’s family gym, but the main point is to keep him off the stairs as much as possible.

“How’s shield training?” Toby prompts.

“It’s going pretty well,” says Steve.

“Give him a few days’ practice more and I think he’ll be able to reliably shield two of you at once,” says Mort.

“That’s my boy!” boasts Coach.

“Coach-Dad,” whines Steve, clearly embarrassed.

“What? I’m proud of ya!”

Steve’s cheeks flame red and he shovels a bite of his chicken into his mouth. Then, after swallowing, he asks, “How about you guys?”

Krel shrinks. Nimue rolls her eyes. “We’re working on it.”

“Toby can fly with his war-hammer,” says Ikram.

Toby preens. “That’s right. Pretty cool, huh?”

“Impressive,” says Mort. “Some wizards can do that as well. Without a hammer, of course.”

“Wait, really?” Steve exclaims. “Can I learn that?”

Mort chuckles. “If you ever do, it won’t be for a long time. It takes a lot of magical power. Only very powerful wizards can fly.”

“But maybe one day?” Steve says.

“Perhaps,” agrees Mort.

“Man, I’ve always wanted to learn how to fly,” says Douxie. “All the wizarding greats could fly.”

“I would not call Morgana and Merlin wizarding greats,” says Mort with a scowl.

“I would,” says Douxie.

“Good at wizarding, yes,” says Toby. “Good at being good people, ehh… jury’s still out on Merlin.”

“So, what’s the plan for nights?” asks Steve. “Sleepovers again? How is that gonna work if we’re avoiding our homes?”

“That is a good point,” says Krel. “I mean, Stuart would probably be happy to have you all, but…”

“It might be best if you all just camped out here for the next little bit,” says Mort. “I have a guest room you can use, with a big bed and an air mattress. Or if you really wanted, the living room is open.”

“The guest room will probably work,” says Toby, glancing at his friends. They shrug and nod. “We can rotate who’s on the air mattress.”

“I’ve never had friends sleep over before,” says Douxie. “I mean, for obvious reasons. Uncle Mort doesn’t exactly hide the magic around here.”

“You try making those omelettes you like without magic,” Mort challenges.

“Hey, I make a mean omelette,” says Coach. “No magic needed!”

“They don’t _flip_,” says Mort.

“Don’t you have any wizarding friends?” Toby asks Douxie before Coach and Mort can start bickering about omelettes of all things. “They could come over.”

“If I do, they haven’t told me,” says Douxie. “It’s kinda hard to tell. See, we’re not supposed to tell mundanes about magic, so I can’t really ask a friend, ‘Hey, you a wizard, mate?’”

Toby nods. “Makes sense.”

“I had never had a sleep-over either,” says Krel. “It’s very fun.”

“Except sometimes Krel here goes all glowstick on us,” Steve teases.

“I haven’t had any dreams like that since I found Gaylen’s core!” Krel protests.

“That’s not a good thing!” Steve cries. “I still say Gaylen’s core is bad news.”

This catches Mort’s attention, apparently, because his brow furrows and he leans forward. “Gaylen’s core? You didn’t mention this before.”

“Oh, yeah,” says Toby. Maybe that was something they should have talked to Mort about. “So, Krel was having these freaky dreams where he was looking for something in the forest, right? And then, the night after we un-brainwashed Ikram, he found Gaylen’s core in the woods and brought it home. It’s creepy, anytime he gets close to it he and the core both light up like crazy.”

Mort’s frown lands on Krel. He shifts awkwardly.

“It’s probably just reacting to my Akiridion core,” he says.

“I’m not sure whether to be concerned, interested, or both,” says Mort. “I don’t know much about Gaylen’s core, but I do know that it’s a very powerful artefact. Do you know for sure it’s reacting to your core _as an Akiridion_?”

“What do you mean?” Krel asks warily.

“I’m saying it might be reacting to _your core_,” Mort stresses. Krel’s brow furrows. “If that’s the case… well, then, I am far more concerned than interested.”

Krel shakes his head. “That doesn’t make any sense. Why would it be reacting to my core specifically?”

“I don’t know,” says Mort. “But I don’t want you alone with Gaylen’s core until we’re sure it’s not. For your own safety.”

“What?” Krel protests immediately, like Toby knew he would. “I’ve been studying it and it hasn’t done anything to me. It’s not dangerous unless I’m stupid, which I am _not_, and you know it!”

“No arguments,” says Mort.

“I still think we should ship it to Akiridion-5 and be done with it,” says Steve.

“Krel,” Mort insists. “Promise me.”

“Fine, I promise,” Krel grumbles. Toby makes a mental note to keep an eye on the Akiridion to make sure he doesn’t try to sneak off and study Gaylen’s core on his own. While Toby trusts him not to be stupid with it, he really doesn’t like the idea of something happening and not being there to stop it.

“So, uh, Ikram,” coughs Toby awkwardly. “Where are you staying?”

“With Nimue,” says Ikram, nodding to the pink-haired girl. “I can’t stay here, obviously. I’m also working in the shop.”

“Where did you live before all this?” asks Steve.

“I’ve moved around a lot, given this country isn’t very old,” she says. “But most recently, I lived in Oregon. Not too far. Not here, for sure. Arcadia isn’t bad, or I suppose it wouldn’t be bad if the world wasn’t ending.”

“Yeah, it’s usually a lot nicer,” says Steve. “These past few months have been kinda wild.”

“I don’t know about you guys, but I’m actually looking forward to school starting,” Toby says. “At least then things might go a little bit back to normal.”

Nimue elbows Douxie in the arm. “Hey, see any apocalypses after this one?”

“If I do, you all will be the first to know,” he retorts.

“Nope, count me out,” says Steve. “There’s got to be a maximum for apocalypses someone can live through, and I think I’m reaching mine.”

“Uh, me too,” says Krel. “I would also like to be counted as out.”

“Me three,” adds Toby. “I’m all apocalypsed out.”

“You kids are doing well given the circumstances,” says Mort. “Not many people your age have had to deal with one end of the world, let alone three. I’d say you’re taking it rather well.”

Ikram nods. Nimue pops a fry into her mouth. “Once this is over, all three of you deserve a break.”

“I’ll even go easy on you at school,” Coach offers. Steve perks up. “Maybe less you, Steve. Got the football season coming up!”

“Oh, yeah,” Steve says.

“What is foot-ball?” asks Krel. Toby winces as Steve and Coach immediately whirl on the poor Akiridion with horrified, wounded expressions. He’s poked the hornet’s nest now. Toby quietly resigns himself to listening to thirty minutes of football talk and being dragged to the games next year now that he’s friends with Steve, and also mentally berates Krel. There goes any chance of a nice, normal conversation for the rest of lunch.

Toby can’t sleep. Normally he’d blame the air mattress, but it’s actually a pretty comfy air mattress and Toby completely blames magic for it. He’s just really anxious for some reason.

He sighs and rolls out of bed. He grabs his phone and quietly leaves into the hallway. His finger hesitates over Jim’s contact photo – still human, still grinning, still home with Toby – before he finally hits it and presses the phone to his ear. He hopes he doesn’t wake him. The phone rings a couple of times, before Jim picks up with a, “Tobes? What’s up? You okay?”

“Did I wake you?” he asks.

“Nah, man, been on watch duty,” says Jim. “What’s up?”

“So, remember how I told you we beat the Green Knight and she’s on our side?”

“Yeah. What, did she turn on you?”

“No, no!” Toby sighs and leans up against the wall. “There’s another one. I meant to call you about him earlier but, well, we’ve had our hands kinda full.”

“Another one?” Jim repeats. “Great. How’s it going?”

“Well, Steve got the crap kicked out of him,” says Toby. Jim laughs and Toby winces. “No, like, not in a funny way. Like in a, he was hospitalised and almost died way.”

“Oh. Is he – how is he doing?”

“Broken leg aside, I think he’s alright,” says Toby. “Or he will be. Man, Jimbo, it was terrifying. We’re back to not being able to go anywhere alone again, and, honestly, I don’t think Mort wants us to go anywhere without an adult with us, either.”

“That sucks,” says Jim. “Are you sure you don’t want me to come back?”

A large, kind of selfish part of Toby wants to say yes. Jim would be able to help them. If anyone could take the Black Knight, it’s Jim. But there’s too many reasons not to call him back – Mort doesn’t trust Merlin, Jim is needed to protect the trolls, and, well… bringing Jim into this would put Jim in danger. Toby couldn’t do that.

“Yeah, I’m sure,” he says, plastering on a mask of cheerfulness. “We’ll figure it out. It’s just annoying. There goes our summer vacay, am I right?”

Jim sees through it, because of course he does. “Tobes, you know I’m here for you, right? Just because I’m in New Jersey doesn’t mean you can’t talk to me.”

“I know, Jimbo,” Toby says. He stares at the framed pictures on the wall without actually looking at them. “I miss you, man. Arcadia isn’t the same without you.”

“I miss you, too, Tobes.”

Toby swallows. “I don’t know if we can do this. I don’t know if _I _can do this. I’m not like you, Jim, you’re – _you_! You’re smart and brave and – and I’m not like that.”

“Toby.” Jim says seriously. Toby takes a deep breath and nods, even though Jim can’t see him. “Listen, yeah, you’re not me. Of course you’re not! And no one would want you to be, because who you are is amazing. You’re the one who had my back through thick and thin, and I couldn’t ask for a better best friend. And I know you can do this, because you’re _you_, Tobes. You’re a Trollhunter – one of the best.”

Toby sniffs and rubs his eyes. “Thanks, Jimbo. I don’t know what I’d do without you.”

“You’ve got this,” Jim insists.

“I hope you’re right,” says Toby. He shakes his head. “Enough of this downer stuff. How’s everybody?”

Jim laughs but doesn’t protest the change of subject. “Pretty good. Claire tried some Mexican restaurant yesterday and got super mad. Apparently it was really bad.”

“Oh, man, sounds like Claire,” Toby chuckles. “Found the heartstone yet?”

Toby can hear Jim’s wince through the phone. “Not yet. Honestly… I’m beginning to wonder if there even is one.”

“Maybe Krel can figure up how to make some sort of tech-alternative,” suggests Toby. “And then you could… come back home. All of you.”

“That would be nice,” says Jim wistfully. He starts to say something else, but Toby’s attention is immediately drawn away at the sound of Krel screaming from the guest bedroom.

Wait.

Krel _screaming_?

“Jim, I gotta go,” Toby says quickly.

“Toby, what’s going on?”

“Sorry, explain later, bye!” Toby hangs up his phone and runs back into the room. Krel is still screaming. He’s convulsing on the bed, glowing as bright as he was the last time he was near Gaylen’s core. Steve looks up and meets Toby’s eyes in panic.

“What do I do!?” he exclaims.

“I don’t know!” Toby cries. He leans out of the door and cups his hand around his mouth. “MORT! MORT, HELP!”

Mort’s door flies open and the man practically sprints down the hall to their room, muttering profanities under his breath. He too hovers over Krel, evidently at a loss. “Krel? Krel, can you hear me?”

“Do we wake him up?” Steve demands. “Should I hold him down?”

“Don’t hold him down,” snaps Mort. “Just – protect his head, make sure he doesn’t hit it. What happened?”

“I don’t know!” Toby holds up his phone and shakes his head. “I was in the hall, and I think Steve was asleep. He was fine when I left!”

Douxie has wandered in by this point, looking exhausted but just as worried. Toby’s pretty sure this isn’t normal. Scratch that, he _knows_ this isn’t normal.

Then, finally, Krel jerks into a sitting position and his eyes fly open. He’s breathing hard, and one hand flies to his core. Toby doesn’t know if an Akiridion core can race like a human heart, but if it can, it must be.

“Hey, hey, look at me, look at me,” says Mort. Krel turns to face him, stammering out a string of sounds that don’t make any sense together. “Breathe, Krel. You’re safe. You’re in the guest room at my place. We’re all here with you.”

“No,” says Krel. “No, no – I know what we need, I know a way we can beat the Black Knight.”

“I think the bigger concern is that you just had a seizure!” Steve snaps.

Krel ignores him, eyes blown wide. He babbles out something else.

“Krel, it’s okay,” says Mort. “We can figure that out later. Are you okay?”

Krel just shakes his head, then, finally, after a moment of searching for the words, blurts, “We need Gaylen’s core!”


	11. Unexpected Connections

“Gaylen’s core could be our greatest weapon if we can figure out how to use it.” Krel pulls up several screens of data for the others to look at. Gaylen’s core hovers in front of them, suspended with Akiridion tech in Mort’s library. Mort, on the other side from Krel, peers at it with narrowed eyes. Toby and Douxie hover next to Krel, ready, Krel knows, to pull him away at a moment’s notice. Steve is in the nearest chair because none of them will let him stand. Krel swipes through the data. “The problem is figuring it out. I was trying, before this whole Black Knight thing, but Akiridion tech alone isn’t enough.”

He hates to admit that, too. Akiridion tech is, as Toby would put it, awesome-sauce. Earth technology is simply centuries behind their own, which makes little sense to Krel because technically, Earth is older.

“Then perhaps magic can help,” says Mort. “Working together, we can figure this out.”

“And being careful,” adds Toby. Krel pretends not to notice his worried stare. “What _was_ that last night, dude? You scared the crap out of us.”

Krel thinks back to his nightmarish vision last night – Gaylen’s insatiable hunger for power consuming him – planets collapsing in his hands, destruction and death and horror he could never have dreamt up on his own.

“It was – just a bad dream,” he lies. “It just – reminded me of this. And its power.”

By Toby’s frown, he doesn’t buy it at all. Krel focuses his eyes on the data. Numbers are comforting. They show the power, but they’re cold and emotionless. He can work with numbers much better than – whatever that dream was.

“The only way I know for sure would work is what Morando did,” says Krel.

“Which is not ideal,” Toby adds.

“No,” Krel agrees. “It’s not ideal.”

“Well, this thing is certainly magical in nature,” says Mort, “but it’s like nothing I’ve ever seen on Earth. Its aura is actually very similar to yours, Krel.”

“My aura?” repeats Krel in confusion.

Steve leans forward in his seat. “Oh, yeah, it is! Almost the same, except that thing’s is… way bigger.”

“Wizards like Steve and I can see auras, the life energies of all living creatures,” explains Mort. “Yours has – let’s call it an otherworldly flare. Unsurprising, since you’re from another world, after all.”

“But Gaylen’s core isn’t, according to legend,” Krel points out.

Mort nods as if this makes sense. “I have some theories. None supported by much evidence, mind you.”

“Uh, want to share with the class?” asks Toby.

“Not yet,” says Mort. “I tell you four anything, you’ll go off looking for it.”

“Why am I included?” Douxie asks, clearly offended.

“Believe me, I am _amazed_ you haven’t joined their shenanigans,” Mort says dryly. “I’m just waiting. It’ll happen eventually. I raised you, I know.”

Douxie crosses his arms. “I was never that bad.”

“Yes, you were. And are still.”

Toby leans closer to the core, jutting his lips out and tilting his head. “You know, it’s kinda pretty, if you ignore the whole latent powers of an evil god thing.”

Krel bristles. “Gaylen was not _evil_. Just – power changes people, or at least, that’s how I always understood the stories growing up. I think Papa was trying to warn us to be fair rulers and not let it go to our heads.”

“Or your dad knew you’d find this,” says Steve carefully. “Didn’t you mention they were the ones who brought it here?”

“I doubt my parents knew we’d ever come to Earth,” scoffs Krel.

Toby reaches out a hand before Krel or Mort can stop him and hesitantly touches the core. There’s a visible shock and Toby yanks his hand back, shaking it. “Ow! It zapped me!”

“That’s weird,” says Krel. “It never did that to me.”

Mort catches on to Krel’s idea before it’s even fully formed in Krel’s head. “Don’t–”

Too late. Krel places his fingers on the core. It doesn’t zap him, so he flattens his palm on it. It’s warm in a sort of familiar way. He can almost feel a connection, like it’s reaching to his own core – and then he pulls away, horrified. Eyes wide, he holds his hand to his chest and backs away from the core.

“Zap you too?” Toby asks.

“No,” says Krel, swallowing and staring at the core. “Worse.”

Mort’s eyes narrow, but he doesn’t say anything. Krel’s glad. Toby and Steve would overreact, and he isn’t sure he would blame them. For a second there, it was almost like Gaylen’s core was trying to integrate with his own. He makes a note to himself to avoid contact with the core from here on out.

“Alright,” says Mort. “We’ll file that away under things to avoid, then. No touching. That goes for every single one of you.”

“Don’t have to tell me twice,” says Toby.

An echoing bell sound rings through the room. Steve yelps at the suddenness of it, and Krel and Toby both jump, though if asked later, Krel will deny it ever happened. Mort blinks. “Huh. A customer. Douxie, can you go tell them we’re closed?”

“On it,” Douxie says.

Mort shakes his head. “You’d think people would read the sign. Probably a younger wizard. Always on their smartphones, kids these days.”

“According to Mother, when in doubt, we are supposed to play on our phones,” says Krel. He winces and nods towards Steve. “Steve punched me for it, so I’m not sure it’s a great rule.”

“That’s why you started messing around on your phone?” Steve barks out a laugh. “Oh, man, Krel. That was like the worst thing you could’ve done.”

“It was Aja’s idea!”

The hatch door opens again. To Krel’s surprise, the first person to emerge isn’t Douxie, but rather – Seamus?

“Okay, so I was looking into the stuff you told me about and–” Seamus stops abruptly, halfway down the stairs, to gape at them. “Steve? _Krel_? What are you doing here? And what is _that_?”

“Uh,” says Krel awkwardly, somewhat surprised the human had recognised him even in Akiridion form, “that is a long story.”

“Oh, excellent, you’ve met,” says Mort. “No need for introductions then. Seamus, good to see you.”

“Okay, I’m very confused right now, but I’m just going to roll with it,” says Seamus. “I was looking into the stuff you told me about – with the Knights? – and I think I’ve found something.”

He pauses, then points accusingly at them, first Krel then Steve.

“Don’t tell me _this _is the weird stuff you’ve gotten yourself involved with!” he exclaims.

“Um, kinda?” fudges Steve.

“Entirely,” says Krel. “The Black Knight is trying to kill us!”

Seamus opens his mouth to respond to this, thinks better of it, closes it again, then points once more at Steve. “You took on the Black Knight by yourself!?”

“Why would you assume I did it alone?” Steve protests. “Maybe I had back-up!”

“You wouldn’t have been hospitalised if you had _back-up_!”

“If they were really bad back-up.”

“He took on the Black Knight by himself,” Krel says.

“Fine, I screwed up,” admits Steve, crossing his arms and sinking back in the chair.

Seamus waves a hand towards their makeshift research set-up with Gaylen’s core. “And this is?”

“The is Gaylen’s core,” says Krel. “It once belonged to the being who created my planet. It’s also why Morando turned all big and powerful.”

“The giant guy, right,” says Seamus. “And why is it here?”

“We’re trying to figure out how to use it to help us without it making Krel go crazy like Morando,” says Toby.

“Wait, why would it make Krel go crazy?”

“If I were to integrate with it like Morando did, who knows what might happen,” admits Krel. “It’s a – last resort.”

“It’s _not_ a resort,” Toby corrects, glaring at Krel. “Not even in the playing. You may call last night a bad dream, but I blame this thing.”

Krel winces. Toby’s not wrong at all, and the thought kind of scares him. He doesn’t know why he had the dreams to find Gaylen’s core, and he doesn’t know why he had the dream last night. He’s not sure if he wants to find out.

“You said you found something about the Knights,” Douxie says. “Please tell us it’s good news.”

“Not sure if good news is how I’d put it, exactly,” says Seamus. He holds up a thick book. “I couldn’t find anything in my mom’s books, so I stopped by the library to see if there was anything in the mundane books.”

“_The Ultimate Guide to Arthurian Legend_?” Toby reads, brow furrowing. “Looks like something you’d read before a ren faire.”

“A what?” says Krel.

Toby waves him off. “I’ll explain later.”

“Let’s go upstairs,” says Mort. “There’s more room to sit, and then Seamus can explain what he found. I think we need a break from this anyway.”

Krel glances at Gaylen’s core, humming with power, and reluctantly nods in agreement. He and Mort help Steve stand and readjust on his crutches; he grumbles the whole time about “stupid crutches” and “stupid Black Knight”. Krel has long since decided that humans are very poorly designed, but after all of Steve’s injuries fighting the Black Knight, he is absolutely certain of it.

They set up in Mort’s living room. Toby immediately claims the armchair. Krel and Steve sit on one of the couches. Seamus gestures for Krel and Steve to scoot over, then sits next to Krel and flips open his book. Krel leans over to watch over his shoulder. Above them, Douxie and Mort lean on the back of the couch.

“So, usually, this kind of stuff would be attributed to Morgana,” Seamus says. He stops on a page and points to an illustration of a woman shrouded with magic and several knights below her. “But I’m pretty sure Morgana’s already been dealt with.”

“Yep,” says Toby proudly. “Trapped in the Shadow Realm. You’re welcome.”

“Right,” says Seamus. “You’ll have to give me the full story on that, sometime. Anyway, I was trying to figure out who’d be as powerful as Morgana is and who’d possibly want to, you know, bring around the end of the world, and I came across this.”

He passes the book to Krel. Toby groans and gets up so he can walk over and see the book too. The page Seamus has flipped to has an illustrated image of a man in bronze armour. He looks really evil, in Krel’s opinion. His eyes flare bright green and his hands flare golden. The page is labelled, in large letters: MORDRED.

“You have got to be kidding me,” says Mort.

“Mordred,” Krel reads slowly. “What’s a Mordred?”

“Not what,” says Seamus, “who.”

“Mordred, that’s one of the wizards Ikram said could fly,” says Toby.

“According to the books, he was an extremely powerful wizard,” says Seamus. “And he’s the nephew of Morgana. Think about it. It makes sense.”

“But Mordred is dead,” says Douxie. “He died in the Battle of Camlann. Right?”

“We thought Merlin was dead, too,” Toby points out.

“Mordred is most certainly dead,” says Mort. “And even if he wasn’t, being Morgana’s nephew doesn’t mean he’s going to follow in her footsteps and cause an apocalypse. Just because your family’s crazy doesn’t mean _you_ are.”

“All the books say he was just as evil as his mother,” says Seamus.

“Not all of them. Early references even imply he was fighting on Arthur’s side when he died.”

“Do you have any other leads?” Seamus retorts.

Mort purses his lips. “No.”

“And it makes even more sense now,” adds Seamus. “He probably wants revenge for his aunt.”

“Uh, Steve and I didn’t have anything to do with that,” Krel says. He re-evaluates that and shakes his head. “Well, maybe Steve a little, but so far Toby’s the only one who _hasn’t _been attacked on his own.”

Seamus frowns and crosses his arms. “Okay. That does kind of put a kink in it.”

“You don’t even know if Mordred liked his aunt.” Mort really doesn’t like this theory. Krel has no idea why. “Maybe he’d be happy to know she’s trapped in the Shadow Realm.”

“Look, it’s better than nothing,” Seamus snaps. “_You _asked me to look into it.”

“I asked your mother to reach out to her friends out of town,” Mort corrects. “I didn’t ask _you_ to do anything. You took this upon yourself. I had no plans to bring _more_ children into this.”

“Wait, wait,” says Steve. He leans over to stare and Seamus past Krel. “How do you even know all this wizard stuff? You told me it was crazy!”

Seamus rolls his eyes. “Uh, yeah, because it’s a _secret_.”

“Are you saying _you’re _a _wizard_!?” Steve exclaims.

“Yes,” says Seamus. “Just like my mom.”

“Why didn’t you tell me!?”

“Again, it’s a _secret_. How did you three get involved, anyway?”

“A talking cat told us to follow him because the world is ending,” says Toby. “Where is Archie, anyway?”

“Probably sleeping,” says Douxie. “Just because he’s a familiar doesn’t mean he isn’t still a cat.”

“Point taken,” says Toby. “Anyway, the next day, a mind-controlled Knight attacked us.”

“She is on our side now,” Krel offers. “Now we have to deal with the Black Knight, instead.”

“Did the one on your side tell you why they’re after you?” Seamus asks.

“She doesn’t know,” says Toby. “Doesn’t even remember who mind-controlled her. I don’t know what anyone would have against us. Well, I mean, all three of us at once. I could see each of us individually.”

“How long have you been a wizard?” Steve demands, because apparently he cannot comprehend that Seamus also has magic.

“Since birth,” says Seamus flatly.

“You guys can talk about your shared wizardness later,” Toby dismisses. “Right now, we need to focus on–”

“Wait, hold up!” Seamus exclaims. “Steve is a wizard? _Steve_?”

“Why is that such a shock?” Steve huffs and crosses his arms. “I’m a great wizard. Right? Mort, tell him!”

“One day, perhaps,” agrees Mort amusedly.

Steve hunches his shoulders. “It’s a recent development, okay? I’m still learning.”

“Logan’s going to lose his mind if he hears about this,” mutters Seamus.

“Again, let’s focus,” says Toby. “Is there anyone else it could be? ‘Cause Mort seems pretty convinced it isn’t Mordred.”

“Not anyone I can think of,” says Seamus. “Look, it makes sense. More sense than just some random wizard.”

“Some random wizard who’s been alive since the twelfth century,” adds Steve. “We know he’s got to be super old like Ikram. Not that Ikram looks super old. Don’t tell her I called her super old.”

“See?” says Seamus. “Unless you think it’s Morgana.”

Mort scoffs. “No, I don’t think it’s Morgana. I just have a hard time believing a long-dead wizard is behind the Knights.”

“I don’t think long-dead can’t count him out,” says Toby. “Like I said, Merlin was ‘long-dead’ too, but he obviously wasn’t actually dead.”

Mort raises his palms and shakes his head. “Fine, believe what you wish. I’m telling you it’s not Mordred.”

There’s a knock at the door, then Nimue opens it and pokes her head in. “Hey, guys. How many of you can I borrow for training?”

“I have to help Mort study Gaylen’s core,” Krel says quickly. It’s nice to have an excuse to avoid combat training. “Toby and Steve can go.”

“What!?” Steve yelps.

“Betrayal,” Toby hisses.

“Alright, come on, boys,” says Nimue. “Training time. Don’t want to keep Ikram waiting. Oh, and Krel – I’ll let it slide for today, but you’re on double for tomorrow.”

Krel groans. Steve gives him a smug look as he and Toby leave with Nimue.

“I guess we should work on figuring this core out,” says Mort. “Seamus, since you’re already here, would you care to join us? Perhaps a fresh perspective would do us some good.”

“Uh, sure,” says Seamus. “But you’re gonna have to explain what exactly this thing is.”

“Krel?” prompts Mort.

“Thousands of keltons – sorry, years ago, the great Gaylen crushed a star between his fingers and created Akiridion-5,” Krel explains as they walk back downstairs. Seamus nods, eyebrows raised in interest. “But soon he grew too powerful and dangerous, and so Seklos used her own core to destroy him. His core still remained, and according to legend, contains the latent powers of a god. We’re trying to figure out how to tap into those powers.”

“Without risking Krel,” adds Douxie.

“Right,” says Seamus.

“You are good at math,” says Krel. “And apparently, you’re also a wizard. You might be able to help.”

Krel pulls up several screens of data and Seamus leans over his shoulder to read them. Krel has to double-check to make sure he’s translated them into English. He highlights several of the most important points.

“I ran a lot of tests already,” he says. “These are some of the energy readings.”

“Woah,” Seamus mutters. “Those are some crazy numbers.”

“I know!” Krel exclaims. “It could power your entire planet for centuries on end.”

“Can it be used like a battery of sorts?”

“Every simulation says no.” Krel swipes the data away and pulls up a simple simulation – the least dangerous thing he could possibly do with the core, in theory – and the four of them watch as the end result is an explosion that would probably kill everyone in a quarter-mile radius. Seamus grimaces and Mort shakes his head.

“Yikes,” says Douxie.

“Yeah, so, that isn’t an option,” says Krel. “Akiridion tech alone isn’t going to be able to access the core’s power. Oh, and apparently, it zaps anyone who tries to touch it.”

“Well, that’s helpful,” mumbles Seamus.

“I’m hesitant to try anything magical directly on the core,” says Mort, “lest it explode like those simulations. Is there any way we can simulate magical options?”

Krel hums noncommittally. “Maybe. I’d have to set it up in the program, but I think I could do that if you explained it to me.”

“Excellent,” says Mort. “Why don’t you and Seamus work on that together? I feel like that’s a project Douxie and I won’t be much help on.”

“That sounds good,” says Krel. “Seamus?”

“Yeah, we can do that,” he agrees. “You two go bother Steve and Domzalski or something.”

“Perhaps we better,” says Mort with a wince. He nods to Krel and Seamus. “Good luck, boys. Please don’t touch the core. And don’t try anything with me not here. And Seamus, keep an eye on Krel. We’ve yet to determine if the core is merely reacting to an Akiridion or to Krel specifically.”

“What is _that_ supposed to mean?” Seamus asks incredulously, but Mort and Douxie are already halfway up the stairs so he whirls accusingly on Krel instead. “What does he mean by that?”

Krel sighs and walks close to Gaylen’s core. It glows brighter, and a brief glance downward confirms that he does as well. Seamus’s eyebrows shoot up.

“That’s weird,” he says.

“Yeah,” admits Krel. “It is weird. The weirder part is – well, you’re going to think it’s crazy.”

“This whole thing is kinda crazy, man,” says Seamus. “Hit me with your best shot.”

“I am not going to shoot you,” says Krel.

Seamus snorts. “No, just – tell me the weirder part.”

“A few weeks ago, before I found this, I started having these dreams.” Krel frowns at the core, still glowing like a star, daring him to bring his hands to it once more. He knows better. “I was looking for something, in the forest. And apparently I glowed like this while I was asleep. And then I found Gaylen’s core. In the forest. Just like the dreams.”

“That’s… really creepy,” says Seamus. “And not good news. Uh, unrelated but totally related, does Akiridion-5 have wizards?”

“No.”

“Okay, that just makes it creepier then.” Seamus shakes his head, then gently grabs one of Krel’s upper arms and pulls him a few steps away from Gaylen’s core. “Mort’s right to be worried, I think.”

“Ugh, not you too,” Krel says. “Let’s just get this program made.”

He opens a blank program to work with. Krel isn’t sure how human programming works, exactly, or if it’s anything like Akiridion programming, but Seamus is mostly here to explain the magic stuff to him anyway. He knows the code for the simulation of Gaylen’s core already so he inputs that and the data first.

“Hold still a second,” he tells Seamus, who straightens and blinks at him in bewilderment, then surprise as Krel scans him and the blue light washes over his form. “There, now we have a wizard to use in simulations.”

Seamus chuckles and watches as Krel’s fingers fly over the hovering dashboard. Krel bets he’s never seen anything quite like this before, and he feels kind of smug thinking about it. Even space camp couldn’t have had anything as spectacular as Akiridion technology.

“I, uh, never got the chance to apologise,” says Seamus awkwardly. Krel glances back at him in confusion. “For how I acted, I mean. About the math grades and all that. I should know better. Just because my dad’s a racist jerk doesn’t mean I should be.”

“It’s fine, Seamus,” says Krel, although he does kind of appreciate the apology. “I can understand why it upset you.”

“You deserved the A+,” Seamus admits. “No math duels next year, okay? Fair competition.”

Krel grins. “Sounds good to me. But you know I’ll win, right?”

“Oh, you’re on, Tarron!” Seamus exclaims. They both laugh, but then Seamus shifts unsurely. “Just – so you know – I think you belong here. This is your home now, and – you deserve better than people trying to tell you it isn’t. You’re welcome here.”

Krel’s grin softens to a smile. “Thank you, Seamus. You know – you’re okay.”

Seamus’s lips quirk upwards and he gently punches Krel on the arm. “You’re okay, too, man. Friends?”

Krel beams. “Yeah. Friends.”

The two of them turn back to the program. Krel’s very pleased to have another friend. He’s making friends on Earth at a rate he never imagined possible on Akiridion-5, where his record number of friends had been two and he had built both of them from spare parts. Here he has a bunch of friends, and all of them are actual life-forms. 

“So what next?” asks Seamus.

“Now you need to talk me through the different magic you might use to access Gaylen’s core,” says Krel. “And then I’ll program it into here. Uh, is there physics in your magic?”

Seamus opens his mouth to respond, then frowns and furrows his brow. “That’s a good question. There are rules to magic but they don’t exactly line up with physics.”

“Earth physics, maybe,” Krel scoffs. “You don’t even know all the dimensions! Well, tell me the rules. Maybe they’ll work out.”

Seamus mouths the words, “Don’t know all the dimensions?” Krel waves a hand impatiently and he shakes his head. “Um, well, there’s a lot of rules of magic. Mort might be better at this than me.”

“Give it your best shot,” Krel says, mimicking Seamus’s earlier weird human expression.

Seamus raises an eyebrow. “Okay. Rule number one is that magic can’t bring people back from the dead.”

“Obviously,” says Krel warily. “That’s a rule you have to specify? I would be worried if it could.”

“Well, I mean, there is a branch of dark magic that can do it, sorta, in specific circumstances,” says Seamus. “But dark magic has a whole other set of rules.”

Krel decides he doesn’t even want to know. “Go on, what are the other rules?”

“Um, all magic is temporary, but how long varies,” says Seamus. “I know magic is its own form of energy, and you can’t create something from nothing. All spells take magical energy but some take more than others. It’s like physical exercise, you have to practice and work out to be able to do bigger spells.”

“Fascinating,” says Krel. “But ultimately, not all that helpful. I think I’m going to have to record some data of magic actually being done.”

“We can do that,” says Seamus. He eyes Gaylen’s core warily. “But maybe not in here. Don’t want to blow up.”

“Good idea,” agrees Krel. “Although I don’t think Mort will be very happy if we leave.”

“Well, Mort didn’t _say_ not to leave,” Seamus points out. He grins and nods his head towards the stairs. “Follow me.”

Krel tries to hide his hate for the forest as Seamus guides him through it, towards wherever it is that he claims they don’t have to worry about being caught. He’s glad it’s daytime – the forest is infinitely worse at night. At least during daylight hours, he can see where he’s going.

“Okay, here’s the clearing,” says Seamus. He opens his arms and smiles widely, turning in a circle to display the grassy, flowered meadow. “Mom and I come out here to practice together sometimes.”

“It’s… beautiful.” Krel walks further into the field. The grass crunches under his feet and sunlight pierces through the canopy of trees in thin rays, casting a golden sheen on the clearing. Seamus watches him expectantly.

“I can demonstrate all sorts of spells out here,” he says. “So? Where should I start?”

“Hm,” says Krel. He pulls up the scanner first, then considers the question. “Why not just a basic showcase of magic? Just to get the general idea.”

“Like a – a magic portfolio or something.” Seamus nods as if this makes sense. Krel will just have to assume it does. “I can do that. Uh, you might want to stand back.”

Krel takes several steps backwards. It’s not that he doesn’t trust Seamus, but it is that he doesn’t necessarily trust _magic_. Seamus takes a deep breath, then spreads his hands out. Glowing teal circles – what did Nimue call them? Focusers? – form around his hands, and shortly after flames burst to life in front of his palms. He brings his wrists together to shoot a jet of flame toward the trees on the right. He then whips his left hand out and the flames follow. Krel glances briefly at the screen to make sure it’s getting data, then returns his attention to Seamus as the fire vanishes and the wizard traces teal energy into figures in the air. The colour flows like water and holds its form as Seamus’s fingers leave it. Once complete, Seamus places a hand on the figure and turns in a circle, dragging colour with him though the figure itself remains in place. A force-field shimmers into existence around him.

“Here, throw me a stick!” he calls.

“Uh, alright,” says Krel. He grabs one off the ground with a wince, then tosses it to Seamus. It hits the force-field and falls. Seamus mutters something under his breath and then waves his hand through the barrier and it vanishes. He grabs the stick and holds it in his palm – a few seconds later, it hovers into the air. Seamus glances over at Krel and grins. The stick explodes. Seamus’s grin falls, face covered in soot.

“Okay, that didn’t work,” Seamus says.

“Yeah,” says Krel, trying to hide a laugh. “That’s kind of what we want _not _to happen.”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah.” Seamus rubs his hands together. “Let’s try this again. Without blowing anything up.”

“Maybe you just aren’t good at that spell.”

“Levitation is beginner’s stuff! I’m great at that spell!”

“You blew up a stick.”

“I could levitate you.”

“No, thank you.”

Seamus grins and throws his hands out towards Krel. Krel yelps as his feet involuntarily lift off the ground and he floats several feet into the air.

“Hey, it’s got to be good for data collection,” Seamus offers.

“Seamus!” Krel exclaims, kicking his feet in mid-air. This only serves to send him into a somersault. He sticks out his arms to try to right himself. Seamus cackles. “Put me down!”

“I told you I’m good at levitation!” Seamus manages in-between laughs.

“Fine, fine, now let me down,” Krel insists.

“Alright, alright.” Seamus motions with a hand and Krel floats to the ground. He takes a moment to just sit there, for once thankful to be sitting in the grass. He has nothing against heights, but he’d rather have something like a hoverboard to help him fly.

“Never do that again,” he says.

“Admit it, you had fun,” Seamus retorts.

Krel goes to cross all four of his arms, but remembers last second he has a device attached to one arm and settles for only crossing the lower ones. “No, I did not.”

Seamus scoffs, still grinning. “Yes, you did so.”

“Fine, a little,” Krel begrudgingly admits. “But not much! Don’t do it again!”

“Maybe another day,” says Seamus.

“No!”

Seamus starts to say something else – probably try to convince Krel that levitating people is a perfectly safe and fun past-time – when his phone goes off. He fishes it out of his pocket and grimaces.

“Mort?” Krel guesses.

“Yep,” says Seamus.

He answers the phone, then presses another button. Mort’s tinny voice rings through the phone's speakers into the clearing. “Where are you two!?”

“Uh, we’re in the forest,” says Seamus.

“The forest!? What are you doing there?” Before either of them can answer, he lets out a frustrated noise. “Never mind, don’t tell me. Get back here! I thought you’d been kidnapped or something! You have _no _idea how angry I am right now, boys, you’re lucky I’m not your father–”

There’s a shuffling noise, then Douxie says, “You better enjoy the walk back. Mort’s pretty mad.”

“Yep, we got that.” Seamus winces as Mort, in the background, yells something along the lines of, “Of all the irresponsible–” Krel privately mourns any chance they’ll ever have to do this again. “We’re on our way.”

“Good luck,” says Douxie. Seamus hangs up the phone and pockets it.

“Welp, we’re dead,” he says. He nods his head back towards the forest. “Come on. Might as well take the long way back, enjoy our precious few moments to live. I can show you some more spells on the walk.”


	12. Take Back the Knight

Probably the most surprising thing that’s happened over the past couple of days is the fact that they now officially have a semi-useful plan for defeating and capturing the Black Knight. It’s especially surprising because the smartest people in their little makeshift group – Mort and Krel, don’t tell Krel Steve said that – aren’t even part of the plan-making process. Both of them, along with Douxie and Seamus, have been busy trying to figure out the whole Gaylen’s core ordeal. They moved back to the Mothership to work on integrating magic and Akiridion tech, but Steve still doesn’t like any of it. He doesn’t trust Gaylen’s core in the slightest, and, quite frankly, he doesn’t like having Krel anywhere near it. Not because he’s worried or anything. It just seems like a bad idea.

“Okay,” says Mort, sitting down at the dinner table in Krel’s house. He’s the last of them because he’d been helping Lucy cook, which had actually been really amusing to watch. “So you have a plan to take down the Black Knight?”

“Yep,” Toby says. “Uh, side note, I vote we just call him BK. Black Knight is a bit of a mouthful, don’t you think?”

“The Black Knight is very clever,” says Ikram. Toby sends her a pouty look and she sighs. “The – _BK –_ is very clever. If we want to defeat him, we have to be cleverer.”

“For the record,” says Steve. “The plan wasn’t my idea.”

“Yeah,” says Krel with a wide grin. “She just said it has to be a _clever_ plan.”

Why does Steve have a problem with him getting into trouble, again? It might be easier to just let him get possessed or something.

“Let’s run through it,” says Nimue. “Steve?”

“I’m–” Steve cuts off with an aggravated sigh, then continues through gritted teeth. “I’m bait.”

Krel hides a laugh behind a hand. Steve glares at him.

“The rest of us will be hiding behind anti-detection spells,” says Ikram. “We’ll split up and surround the area.”

“When BK shows up, then we attack!” Toby stabs his baked potato with a fork and a wide grin. “It’ll be, like, eight of us against one of him, so we’ve got to win.”

“I’ve gone ahead and got us dart guns,” says Nimue. “We’ll load them with a magical sedative that should put him under.”

“Then, we bring him back to Mort’s and interrogate him,” says Steve. “Nimue says you guys can, like, magically enhance rope or something?”

“Shackles would be wiser,” says Mort. “I’ll see what I can do.”

“Excellent,” says Ikram. “We’ll do it tomorrow, then. Light will make things easier for us, and the Black Knight has proven he has no qualms attacking in broad daylight.”

“How’s the Gaylen’s core stuff coming?” Toby asks.

Krel and Seamus exchange frustrated looks. That’s another surprising thing – apparently, Seamus and Krel are officially friends now, and like Steve totally predicted, they get on like a house on fire. Steve has yet to decide if that’s a good thing. Mort, on the other hand, has made it very clear that he thinks it’s a bad thing. Steve has to admit he’s tempted to agree after finding out that within ten minutes of being left alone, they’d snuck out and risked getting attacked by the Black Knight.

“We’ve found some more interesting data, but that’s all,” says Krel. “Nothing that will help us. I’m starting to think we won’t be able to access its powers.”

“Nothing with magic?” asks Toby.

Krel shakes his head and pulls up a simulation. A suspiciously Seamus-shaped wizard appears on screen and casts a spell, only for the entire simulated room to explode. Toby grimaces. Seamus grumbles something about being sick of getting blown up. Douxie hides a laugh and Archie, perched on the table next to him, bats him with a disapproving paw.

“Okay, that would be a big no,” says Steve.

“Yeah,” says Seamus. “We’ll keep trying, but we’re not exactly confident. I think Gaylen’s core might just be a dead end.”

Krel’s expressions says he doesn’t agree. Steve is very glad Mort won’t let him near the thing alone. Mort shakes his head. “Do you think you’ll be able to handle the Black Knight, or will you need us there? I have one or two more ideas before we give up entirely.”

“I think we’ve got it,” says Nimue. “We can phone if we need you.”

Steve doesn’t personally think they’ve got it, but then again, they’ve got Ikram on their side now, so he agrees, “We’ll be good, Mort.”

“Is your not-dad going to be helping with this?” asks Krel. Steve rolls his eyes at his friend’s nickname for Coach and shakes his head. It’s not that he didn’t offer – because he had, multiple times – but Ikram had kindly vetoed the idea on the grounds that she wasn’t sure he could do stealth if he tried.

“Just the four of us,” says Toby. “But Ikram counts as like, four more, so it’s basically eight of us.”

“Just be sure to call if you need help,” Mort says. “No one is getting hospitalised this time.”

Steve winces and glances down at his cast – by now, most everyone he knows has signed it, except for Aja and Eli on Akiridion-5 and Jim and Claire in New Jersey. Krel’s signed it in two different languages, and Toby added a little doodle next to his own signature. Seamus had originally written “Get well soon!” but that’s since been crossed out and replaced with “Don’t be stupid next time!”

“Yeah,” he agrees. “Not this time.”

Steve has a lot of issues with this plan, especially because he’s bait, but even more especially because no reasonable person should be up at this hour. He gets why – less bystanders to possibly get hurt – but he still hates it as he crutches down the sidewalk towards Mort’s. He hopes this part of the plan works, because if it doesn’t, then they’re kinda back to square one. Steve wanted to issue a formal request for a duel or something. Ikram shot that down.

Unfortunately – well, fortunately, actually, but still, ugh – he hears the sound of armoured footsteps behind him. He turns his head as far as he can to sort of see the Black Knight.

“Can you, like, walk in front of me?” he says. “It’s really hard to turn on these things.”

To his mild surprise, the Knight does circle in front of him, axe hefted onto his shoulder and helmet off. He was more intimidating with it, honestly, because he looks like a fairly average guy. His dark hair is even spiked up with gel, or it looks like that anyway.

“Bold of them to leave you alone, wizardling,” the Knight notes. “And foolish. You couldn’t take me before. Do you honestly believe you can take me now, injured?”

“Not really,” Steve admits. “But here’s the thing. I’m just bait.”

The Knight’s eyes widen. “What?”

On cue, three different darts fly from different, supposedly unoccupied spots. Two of the darts make contact, one in the Black Knight’s neck and the other in his cheek, which has got to hurt. The third flies into a tree. If Steve had to guess, he’d say that one is Toby’s. The Black Knight drops like a rock.

“Oh, yeah!” Steve cheers, leaning on one side so he can raise his other crutch into the air triumphantly. “Take that!”

The spells hiding the others shatter. Toby runs over to high-five Steve, laughing. “We did it! Woo!”

Ikram nudges the Knight with her foot. “He’s out, alright.”

“Is, uh, is that a bad thing?” Toby asks, gesturing to the two darts both loaded with enough sedative to knock out a full-grown man.

“Eh, he’ll live,” says Nimue. “It’ll keep him out. Come on, let’s get him back to base.”

Toby lights up. “We’re calling it base now? Sweet.”

Nimue waves a hand and the limp Knight lifts into the air. Steve guesses that’s another reason to do this early, although at this point he’s not sure any Arcadians would bat an eyelash at an unconscious Knight floating along next to three other people in armour and a teen on crutches, especially if they see Toby and Steve involved.

Once they reach Mort’s shop, Toby helps Nimue tie the Knight to a chair using the chains Mort had somehow found and enchanted for them the night before. Steve isn’t even going to think about asking where those came from.

“I can’t believe that actually worked,” says Steve.

“We got lucky he didn’t attack you first,” says Ikram.

“What!? You thought he might!?”

“Eh, twenty-five percent chance.” She makes a hand-wavey motion to support this. “I was expecting him to want to gloat first, and I was right. All’s well that ends well.”

“Uh, a little warning about that would have been nice,” says Toby. “Alright, how do we wake him up?”

Nimue opens a drawer in the library desk. She pulls out a small vial, then unceremoniously dumps it in his face. “Alright, wake up. We have some questions for you.”

The Black Knight splutters awake, dark green liquid slipping down his forehead like water. He stares around the room in disbelief before managing to regain his composure. “Impressive. You managed to capture me. Maybe you are worthy opponents, after all.”

“That’s right, we are,” Steve shoots back.

“Green Knight,” says the Knight, frowning at Ikram. “So you have defected, then.”

“It isn’t defecting if I was never on your side to begin with,” says Ikram primly.

“Alright, Black Knight!” exclaims Toby, leaping forward with – is that a knife? Where did he get a knife? “Tell us who you’re working for and we’ll let you live!”

“Woah, woah, woah, Tobes, slow down, man,” Steve says, using a crutch to pull him away. “What are you doing with a knife?”

“Sorry, sorry, got carried away,” says Toby sheepishly. He then glares at the Knight and brandishes his kitchen knife threateningly. “But seriously. Tell us who you work for.”

The Black Knight chuckles – like, dark supervillain chuckles that creep Steve out – then full-out laughs.

“You won’t be getting anything from me,” he says. “So do your worst.”

They try everything they can think of – even a truth potion – but the Black Knight refuses to even open his mouth and apparently there’s no non-dark magic potion to get him to say things if he doesn’t want to. They spend a good hour trying to get his master’s identity out of him to no avail.

“I say we torture him,” says Nimue, who’s very against dark magic but apparently not against torture.

“No,” says Ikram.

“Come on,” Nimue insists. “Just a little.”

“No,” Ikram says again.

Nimue huffs. “Fine. We’ll save it for later.”

“We’re not torturing anyone,” Ikram says.

Nimue mumbles something that sounds a lot like, “Spoilsport.”

“If you won’t tell us who you’re working for, at least tell us why you're trying to kill us,” Toby says. “Why us, specifically? We didn't do anything to you!"

“Morgana,” Steve mutters to him.

“Steve and Krel didn’t do anything to you!” Toby rephrases.

“My only job is to kill the wizardling and capture the alien for my master,” says the Black Knight. “You are inconsequential, whelp.”

“Wait, wait, wait,” Steve butts in before Toby can get too insulted about being called inconsequential. “Kill me and kidnap Krel? That’s your job? You don’t care about Toby at all?”

“Not in the slightest,” confirms the Black Knight. “I’d be happy to kill him too, of course.”

Well. That puts a bit of a kink into Seamus’s Mordred idea.

“What do you have against Steve?” Toby demands. “Yeah, he _used_ to be a total buttsnack, but I guarantee he hasn’t done anything to you and your master!”

The Black Knight’s eyebrows shoot up. “Oh, you don’t know?”

“Don’t know what?” Steve says. “How are we supposed to know if we know what you don’t know if we know if we don’t know what you don’t know if we know?”

“That was a little hard to follow,” says Toby. He brandishes his knife again. “What don’t we know, BK?”

“My master has made it his goal to kill every last one of Arthur’s heirs,” says the Black Knight. “Did you truly not know? The wizardling is the last of the Pendragon line.”

Steve frowns and glances at the others in the room. Ikram’s eyes have widened. He shakes his head. “I’m – what?”

“So curious,” says the Black Knight. “The last of Arthur’s heirs is a wizard! Not even a very good one. I expect he would be ashamed.”

“Shut up!” Toby snaps. “Steve’s a great wizard, or he will be.”

“Yeah!” Steve agrees, once he recovers from his shock. He’s not so sure it’s true. If he was a good wizard, he probably wouldn’t have a broken leg right now. He’s not entirely sure what this Arthur’s heir thing means. Arthur, like – like King Arthur?

“Who is your master?” Ikram draws her sword and levels it at the Black Knight’s neck. “Do not make me ask again.”

He smirks at her. “I’ll never tell.”

Ikram snarls, then, just when Steve is wondering if she’ll attack him, she sheathes her sword and turns away. “Knock him out and take him someplace else. He won’t talk today.”

Nimue nods, then inclines her head towards Toby. “If you’ll do the honours, War-hammer.”

“Oh, yeah,” says Toby. In Steve’s opinion, he’s way too cheerful to be whacking someone in the head with a war-hammer. He watches as the Black Knight slumps unconscious. At least they got one answer, even if that answer has only raised more questions for Steve.

Nimue and Ikram drag him away together through the bookshelf door. Steve collapses into the nearest armchair and puts a hand to his head. Toby deactivates his war-hammer and eyes him worriedly.

“You okay?” he asks.

“I don’t know, man,” Steve admits. “I’m Arthur’s heir – what does that even mean? Has my whole life been a lie? Do I need to start speaking in a British accent?”

“Probably not.”

“Like this? How does this sound?” Steve tries the accent, but it’s really awful so he gives a frustrated yell and stomps his good foot. “Stupid! It sounds _stupid_!”

“I mean, with a little work,” reasons Toby. “But you’re fine. This doesn’t change anything. You’re still Steve Palchuk, football star and used-to-be jerk turned good guy! I mean, I think the wizard thing is more reality-shaking than this.”

“Yeah, I guess,” says Steve glumly. He shakes his head to try to dismiss the lingering unease. “Okay, we know why he wants me dead, I guess. Sort of. But what does he want with _Krel_?”

Toby frowns. “I have no idea. Maybe it’s because he’s Akiridion? Maybe he needs Krel to do some cool space tech thing for him.”

“I dunno, man,” says Steve. “I get that Krel’s smart, but there’s a whole lot of other extra-terrestrials out there he could contact, right?”

“That’s all I’ve got,” admits Toby.

“Least you’re in the clear,” Steve says. “Seamus probably won’t be happy. It all but disproves his Mordred theory.”

“Unless, you know, he doesn’t realise I helped defeat Morgana,” Toby points out. He winces. “I wasn’t even that much help, dude.”

Steve scoffs and nudges his friend in the shoulder. “I bet Jim and Claire would say differently.”

Toby smiles, but it’s kind of sad. Steve gets it, especially now that Eli and Aja are – how far away did Krel say? Like fifty-thousand light years? The point is, they’re not here, and Steve misses them, just like he knows Toby misses Jim and Claire in New Jersey.

Steve’s ringtone cuts through the brief silence. He glances at the caller ID – Krel, which isn’t entirely surprising – and swipes to answer. He puts it on speaker as he does, so Toby can join the conversation.

“I hope you have some good news, because we’ve gotten nowhere,” Krel says.

“We’ve discovered five more methods of killing ourselves,” Seamus adds. “If we were looking for how to blow up the entire city, we’ve also found about three ways of doing that.”

“Well, good news is, we’ve caught the Black Knight,” says Toby.

“That’s fantastic news!” Krel exclaims.

“I sense a but,” says Mort. “What’s the bad news?”

“He’s not really talking,” admits Toby. “The most we got out of him is why he’s after Steve, specifically.”

“I’m the true king of England,” Steve blurts. Toby rolls his eyes. “What? I am!”

“You are _not_,” says Toby.

“I’m trying to have fun with this, okay!?”

Toby sighs. “What he means is that it turns out Steve here is the only remaining heir of King Arthur, and for some reason, the Knight’s master wants all of Arthur’s heirs dead.”

“That’s… unexpected,” says Mort.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Steve exclaims.

“Nothing bad, certainly,” Mort assures. “It comes as a surprise, but mostly because I would expect there to be more than one of Arthur’s descendants still alive.”

“Two, if I’m right,” pipes in Seamus. Mort groans. Steve tries not to laugh. “What? It makes even more sense now! He’s on some sort of – of blood quest! Mordred is Arthur’s son, after all.”

“I’m telling you it’s not Mordred,” says Mort.

“And I’m telling you it might be,” Seamus retorts.

“That’s all he would tell you?” Douxie asks. “That Steve’s many-greats-granddad is King Arthur and that’s why he’s supposed to kill him?”

“Pretty much,” says Toby.

“And that he’s also after Krel, but not Toby,” Steve adds.

“What? What does he want with me?” Krel asks, voice heavy with annoyance. “I never did anything to him.”

“We don’t know,” says Toby.

“Good news is, he wants you alive,” offers Steve. “How alive, we aren’t sure, but hey, at least we don’t have to worry about _you_ dying. Aja would murder me.”

“What do you mean ‘how alive’? That doesn’t make any sense!”

“There’s a difference between alive and in one piece,” says Seamus helpfully.

“Thank you, Seamus, you’re very reassuring,” says Krel dryly.

“I try.”

“Was anyone hurt capturing the Black Knight?” Mort asks.

“Nope,” says Steve. “It was actually really easy.”

It’s kind of embarrassing, really, how easy it was. It took, what? Five minutes to knock him out? And when Steve faced him – and he has to say that really loosely – he got the crap beaten out of him. Maybe they just got lucky. Or maybe Steve is just really, really bad at this. Steve convinces himself they got lucky.

“Good,” says Mort, surprise lacing his tone. “And where is the Black Knight now?”

“Ikram and Nimue are locking him up somewhere,” says Toby. “Ikram wouldn’t let Nimue torture him, so we’ve stopped questioning him for the day.”

“That’s… probably for the best,” says Mort.

Douxie audibly sighs. “Oh, Nim. I’m sorry about her, really.”

“Toby threatened him with a knife,” Steve says dryly. He hears Krel bark out a laugh and Seamus exclaim, “Domzalski _what_?” in disbelief. “She’s not all that out there.”

“Well, that’s two Knights down,” says Mort. “Hopefully the third isn’t yet here. I think it’s safe, but if you leave my shop, stay armed and stick together. No going out alone, understood?”

“Got it,” says Toby.

“Yep,” Steve mutters, fully aware that was aimed directly at him. “Crystal clear.”

“Good. I think you should be safe to go home tonight, if you wish.”

“Aw, yes!” Toby cheers. “No offence. I just haven’t seen Nana or Aaarrrgghh!!! in like _days_. Next time we’ve got to at least bring Aaarrrgghh!!! over.”

Mort mumbles something about needing more adults around, anyway, then says, “Alright. Take care and be safe. If you see anything suspicious, call me immediately. Otherwise, I’ll probably see you boys tomorrow.”

Probably is actually definitely, but Steve doesn’t say anything about that as the others hang up. He knows he, at least, needs to really get on the magic stuff. They’ve taken a break the past few days just so Mort could help with the Gaylen’s core issue, but now that’s looking like a dead end, so it’s back to magic training for Steve. Not that Steve minds all that much. Now that he can’t fight for the next – what was it? Dr. L said at least six weeks, but Mort said to cut that time in half, so he’s useless in a fight for the next three weeks. At least he can learn how to protect his friends with magic so the same thing doesn’t happen to them. No one is getting hurt under his magical watch.

It’s kind of nice – he’ll never admit that out loud and will deny it if anyone asks – but it’s kind of nice to be able to eat dinner just with his family for once. Mom works on some sort of side dish in the kitchen while Steve and Coach team up to grill hamburgers. He’s only used the grill, like, twice before, but he’s pretty sure he’s got it, and just in case, he may or may not have a magical shield around the grill in case it blows up.

The burgers turn out a little burnt, but Coach says they’re great so he counts it as a win. As they eat, he can practically see Mom trying to figure out a way to ask about the whole magic and Knight situation.

“So we captured the Black Knight this morning,” he says as casually as he can manage. Mom perks up.

“Oh, that’s great, honey,” says Mom.

“There’s probably more,” Steve admits. “But they aren’t here yet, so we have time.”

Her lips purse. “How did you get yourself mixed up in all this… magic nonsense, anyway?”

“Well, I am a wizard,” Steve offers. Her eyes narrow. That was _not_ the right answer. “And before you say it’s my friends, first of all, Seamus is _also_ a wizard so you can’t say I used to have normal friends, and second of all, the Knights would have still been after me. Apparently I’m descended from King Arthur or – or something. Did you know about that?”

“Woah, really?” Coach exclaims.

“No, I didn’t know about – King Arthur is a _myth_,” says Mom.

Steve winces. “See, the thing is, apparently he’s not.”

“Well, it’s not from my side.” Mom kind of violently squirts ketchup onto her burger and harrumphs. “Figures.”

Steve… isn’t sure how to respond to this, so he doesn’t, instead taking a bite of his burger and avoiding Mom’s gaze. Yeah, figures. Even after leaving, his biological father still finds ways to screw up his life. It’s great.

“According to his teacher, Steve’s doing great with this magic stuff,” Coach boasts. “They’re learning – eh… spells and stuff!”

“Mort’s mostly teaching me protection spells,” Steve says. Mom nods, so she must like the sound of that. “I obviously can’t fight with a broken leg, but I can keep my friends safe. Uh. And myself. It’s pretty cool. Mostly shields. I could show you after dinner, if you want.”

Definitely the right thing to say. She lights up. “I’d love that.”

“So, uh… have you guys been alright?” Steve asks. “Like, no one’s targeted you or anything?”

“Nope,” says Coach. “We’ve been perfectly fine.”

“Your wizard friend, Mr. Penn, he came by to install some magic security or something,” says Mom.

“Oh.” Huh, Steve didn’t know that. “Oh, right, yep. Sounds like Mort. That’s great!”

“I don’t see why you can’t stay here,” Mom grumbles. “We have the – whatever he called it.”

“It’s more the getting to and from thing,” admits Steve. “I mean, I bet we could do the rotating thing again, but we, uh, learned the hard way that it’s not safe to go alone.”

Mom’s expression sours, so he knows she knows what he’s talking about. Steve absently eats a few fries and avoids her frown. Coach coughs awkwardly.

“So,” he says, “School’s starting soon! You excited?”

“Wait, when is school starting?”

“Uh, a bit over a week?” guesses Coach. “Barring any, you know, cataclysmic events. So you might have a longer summer than expected.”

Steve is torn between hoping so – because he doesn’t want to go to school – and hoping not – because he doesn’t want an apocalypse. It must show in his expression, because Coach bursts out laughing and even Mom chuckles.

“Man, I’d hate to still be dealing with the Knights at school,” he says. “I don’t know how Jim balanced the Trollhunting stuff _and _his grades.”

Coach snorts. “Take it from me. He didn’t.”

That’s – fair. Didn’t Jim miss like fifty days of school? That’s almost impressive, actually.

“You wouldn’t have to worry,” Coach says. “I’d make sure you kids involved in this whole mess would have an easier time.”

Steve offers him a wide smile. “Gee, thanks, Coach. Means a lot.”

Coach gives him a mega-watt grin in response, then returns his attention to his burger. Mom glances fondly between them but luckily doesn’t start gushing – again – about how glad she is they’re getting along. The last thing Steve wants right now is _mushiness_.

“So,” says Mom lightly, clearly changing the subject, “tell me more about your magic lessons.”

Later that night, Steve pulls out an old photograph he’d buried deep in his desk drawer after his biological dad left. It’s from a time when the guy wasn’t such a massive buttsnack, or at least a time before Steve knew the guy was a massive buttsnack. Toddler Steve is sitting on his shoulders, grinning like it’s Christmas, and Mom is smiling in a much more subdued way. Clyde – because Steve _refuses_ to call him “Dad” – is laughing. He doesn’t look like an abusive jerk in the photograph, but, then, Steve supposes not many people look like abusive jerks at first glance.

Steve hates him. Steve hates him _so much_. Clyde made it very clear that Steve was never, ever good enough. Even when he was star of the football team, passing all his classes, most popular guy in school, he was _never _good enough. When he messed up, Clyde hit him. When Clyde was drunk, he hit him – but then, Clyde was drunk all the time so, really, was that even a qualifier? There’s almost no redeeming quality Steve can think of, so why does he feel so… weird about Clyde being dead?

Part of Steve almost wants to celebrate. Ding, dong, the witch is dead, and all that. And he had to be dead – the Black Knight said Steve was the _last_ of Arthur’s heirs. So the others are all dead. Which includes Clyde. Which is a good thing, right? The man can’t hurt anyone ever again. But then, he feels kind of bad that he isn’t sad about Clyde’s death. Shouldn’t there be – something? Clyde was his dad for fifteen years. A terrible dad, but still. That means _something_, doesn’t it?

There’s a knock on his door. He panics and shoves the picture back in his drawer before Coach walks in, hesitant.

“Can, I – can I come in?” he asks.

“Uh, yeah,” says Steve. “Yeah, sure thing, come on in.”

Coach tentatively sits next to him on his bed. “You seemed kind of distracted at dinner.”

“Mom sent you to talk to me?”

“A little bit, yeah.”

Steve laughs weakly. “Right. Well, I’m fine. Totally fine.”

Coach raises an eyebrow. “You don’t look fine.”

Steve rests his arms on his thighs and leans forward. He glances to the drawer, then back to Coach, still watching him worriedly. Like a real dad should.

“Clyde’s dead,” he blurts. Coach’s brow furrows. “My – biological father – but you knew that. But, uh… turns out he’s dead.”

“You, uh, you wanna talk about it?” he prompts.

“I’m not sad,” Steve admits. He swallows. “I’m not sad. Shouldn’t I be sad?”

Coach purses his lips like he’s trying to put together the words, then rests a hand on Steve’s shoulders. “I don’t know everything, but I know what that man did to you and your mother wasn’t okay. And if you’re not sad that he’s dead, well… I think that’s perfectly understandable. Okay? Your feelings are completely valid. You don’t need to force yourself to be sad for a man who hurt you.”

“I hate him,” Steve mutters. “He’s gone for good and I still hate him _so much_. I don’t know what I ever did to him. I don’t know why he – he–“

Coach pulls him into a hug. He doesn’t know why he’s getting all teary all of a sudden.

“You’re an outstanding young man, Steve,” Coach mumbles. “Any man would be lucky to have you as a son. _I’m _lucky to have you as a son.”

The dam breaks. Steve grasps the back of Coach’s – of his _dad’s_ shirt, because it’s about time he stops pretending he doesn’t see Coach as a dad, and lets himself cry. There’s no one here to judge him. Coach – Dad rubs his back comfortingly. It’s nice. To have a dad. Steve doesn’t know why Clyde was such a jerk, and he never will, but at least he has a real dad now.

“I don’t want to be – be some sort of chosen one,” he says. “And that’s what this feels a lot like. And it sucks.”

“You’re not alone, bud,” says Dad. “You’ve got your friends. You’ve got your mother and I. None of us are gonna let you face any of this alone.”

“And what if one of you – gets hurt? Or – or worse or something?”

Dad pulls away with a sigh. Steve awkwardly sniffs and wipes his cheeks. “I can’t promise you no one will get hurt. But if someone does – it won’t be your fault. Okay?”

Steve takes in a shaky breath. He isn’t so sure about that, but he nods anyway. “Okay.”

“You kids shouldn’t be dealing with this,” says Dad. “You should be enjoying your last week of summer like normal teenagers. If I could take this away from you, I would.”

“I know you would,” Steve says. He blinks back more tears, determined to be done with that for the night, and offers Dad a small smile. “For the record… I’m really lucky to have you, too… Dad.”

Coach’s eyes well up with tears as he grins and grabs Steve in another, more boisterous hug. “Aw, come ‘ere, you!”

“Dad!” Steve yelps.

“What? Can’t a man hug his favourite son?”

“I’m your only son.”

“Even more favouriter!”

“What does that even mean?”

“I don’t know!”

Steve laughs, finally feeling some of the heaviness lift off his shoulders. He’s glad he’s not alone. He wouldn’t be able to do this alone. But with his friends and family – with Toby and Krel, Mort and Douxie and Seamus, Mom and Dad – he thinks he might just be able to help save the world.


	13. The Core of the Problem

Toby figures Ikram must be pretty confident in how they’ve contained BK, because otherwise he highly doubts that he and Krel would have been left in charge of guarding the door this afternoon while the others go out to get lunch. Even Krel clearly isn’t that worried, content to stay in his human form. They drew the short straw, honestly. It’s actually kind of boring. They both end up sitting on the ground playing a video game on their phones against each other.

“I don’t see why we even need to stand guard,” says Toby. “BK’s not getting out of there.”

“Well, BK is very dangerous,” reasons Krel, who, so far, is the only other person to pick up Toby’s _brilliant_ nickname for the Knight. Toby appreciates it. “It’s better not to risk it.”

“Magical shackles, dude!” Toby insists. “I say we go get milkshakes or something.”

“The others will be back with lunch soon,” Krel says. “It’s not that long.”

Toby shrugs and focuses his attention back on the game. He’s winning, actually, which is a first on this particular game because apparently, it’s built for math people. Toby is not a math person. Krel is. There’s a distinct disadvantage there.

“I’m still going to win,” says Krel, with a sort of smug confidence that would be really annoying on anyone else but is actually kind of endearing on Krel.

“Sure you are, buddy,” Toby shoots back.

A few minutes later, Toby’s won for the first time in ever. It’s very satisfying to see Krel’s face morph into disbelieving horror at losing a math-related game like this. Especially to Toby’s pure dumb luck. Maybe he’s too pleased about it. Nah. It’s about time he won one of these.

“How did you – but – no fair,” Krel blurts. Toby cackles. “Rematch. You got lucky.”

“Or maybe you’re slipping,” Toby teases.

Krel scoffs. “I’m sitting down, I’m not slipping on anything.”

Before Toby has the chance to respond, there’s a thud from the other side of the door. They exchange wide-eyed looks, then pocket their phones and hop to their feet. Toby activates his war-hammer as Krel activates his serrator.

Another thud, and then the door flies open. Krel and Toby both jump backwards. The Black Knight stands smugly in the doorway, flexing his wrists. Well, at the very least he’d been uncomfortable, but apparently not held well enough.

“You honestly thought you could hold me,” he says scathingly, eyes shining with malice. Man, Toby really hates this guy.

“Yeah, kinda,” Toby admits.

The Black Knight moves faster than they can react. He grabs Toby’s war-hammer and uses it to throw Toby across the room, then turns on Krel. A rapid, hard jab to Krel’s stomach crumples him, and the Knight grabs him and tosses him over his shoulder.

“Oh, no, you don’t!” Toby exclaims, pulling himself to his feet and chasing after the Knight as he goes to leave. He grabs Krel’s dropped serrator on the way. Krel struggles in the Knight's grip, pounding his fists on his armoured back.

“Let me go!” Krel cries.

Toby, for once, is happy that the area under Nimue’s shop can kind of be a maze. He wishes the halls were less narrow. He also wishes he could run faster. Flying in here will only end in disaster. Toby’s tried.

Krel’s struggling seems to be slowing the Knight down, but as it turns out, that’s not a good thing. The Knight stops and slings Krel off his shoulder. Toby runs as fast as he can to catch up. Krel tries to lash out. The Knight grabs him and slams his head into the stone wall. Krel slumps immediately into unconsciousness. Toby ignores the burn in his legs to speed up. The Black Knight carelessly tosses Krel back over his shoulder. Glowing blue blood drips onto the floor. Toby feels sick. The Knight takes off running again.

“Let go of my friend!” Toby yells. Okay, it’s flying time. It’ll be difficult but if the Knight escapes with Krel – well, that’s it. Toby might never see him again. He can’t let that happen. He makes to throw his hammer at the Knight, then doesn’t let go, clinging on and letting the hammer propel him forward.

The hammer flies right into the Knight’s head. It’s not enough to knock him out, but it disorients him into dropping Krel. Toby hits the ground and grabs his friend and drags him away from the Knight. Krel is still out, blood saturating his dark hair from a gash on his forehead. Toby stands between him and the Knight, trying to look more confident than he feels.

“I won’t let you touch him,” he growls.

The Knight narrows his eyes. Toby transfers his hammer to one hand and activates the serrator-gun with his other. He’s had no practice with this thing, but it might give him a chance. He shoots. At point-blank range like this, even he can’t miss. The Knight flies backwards. He pushes himself to his feet. Toby prepares to shoot again. The Knight snarls, then turns and runs the other way. Toby waits until he’s certain the Knight isn’t coming back before letting his guard down and kneeling beside Krel. The Akiridion’s face is lax, and the blood has started to drip down his cheek towards his chin.

“Krel?” he says hesitantly. “Krel, buddy. Wake up.”

There’s no response. Toby swallows. There’s a lot of blood. Should there be that much blood? Head wounds bleed a lot, don’t they? Ugh, Toby’s not a doctor, and he doesn’t know if Akiridions in disguise as humans work differently. Would it help if Krel was Akiridion right now? Or would that make it worse? At least he knows Krel’s not dead. He’s breathing, for one, and supposedly, dead Akiridions don’t have, well, bodies. That’s a morbid train of thought, so Toby forces it back.

Ultimately, he carefully scoops the unconscious boy into his arms and walks back to Mort’s. It’s kind of slow going, but Toby would rather not run and, like, accidentally drop him. Archie looks alarmed as they enter. Toby lays Krel on the floor, trying to arrange him as comfortably as possible. Archie nudges Krel’s hand with his head.

“What happened?” he demands when he receives no response from Krel.

“The Black Knight escaped,” Toby says weakly. “I – we couldn’t stop him. He almost got Krel.”

“Well,” says Archie, “a life of almost is a life of never. Krel is safe now.”

“Huh. Blinky told us the same thing.” Toby manages a feeble laugh, then winces. “I gotta call someone. I gotta – hang on.”

He pulls out his phone and dials Steve, if only because he’s certain Steve will be the quickest to pick up. It rings once, twice, then Steve answers, “Hey, Tobes! Let me put you on speaker, hang on.”

“Steve!” Toby exclaims. “It’s an emergency! The Black Knight got away and Krel’s hurt and I don’t know what to do!”

“What!?” Steve cries.

“Krel’s hurt?” Seamus asks in alarm.

“You guys need to get back ASAP,” Toby says. “Krel needs a doctor, but I think Mort will probably do.”

“We’re on our way,” says Mort. There’s a shuffling sound from the other line, then Mort’s voice sounds closer. “What’s wrong with Krel? I can walk you through first aid.”

“Uh, he’s bleeding a lot,” says Toby. “BK, like, slammed his head into the wall to knock him out.”

“That’s… not good,” says Mort. “Try to stop the bleeding, but be careful with pressure until I get there. Is he awake?”

“No. And I don’t think we will be for a while. He got hit pretty bad.”

“Okay. If he wakes up, don’t let him panic. We’ll be there soon.”

Someone – whoever’s holding the phone, probably Mort – hangs up. Toby returns his attention to Krel. Archie has dragged a washcloth over and offers it to him. Toby takes it and gently presses it to the wound on Krel’s head, watching blue soak into the white fabric. He should probably clean up Krel’s face, but that can wait until after the bleeding’s stopped.

“Don’t feel too badly about this,” says Archie. “There should have been more protections. This is in no way a failure on your parts.”

“Sure feels like it,” Toby mutters.

“If it would make you feel better, I could tell you some of the dumbest mistakes Douxie has ever made,” Archie offers. “I really do think it would make you feel better. He’s made some very foolish mistakes. Much worse than this.”

Toby chuckles. “Maybe another time.”

“Hmph, very well,” says Archie. “And this wasn’t a mistake on your part. More so on Mort’s, really. Shoddy protections, sounds like.”

“Thanks, Archie,” says Toby. Archie nods, then sits patiently beside him as some form of comfort.

It’s not much longer before the trap door burst open and Mort runs down the stairs; he glances at Krel briefly, then makes a beeline for his potion lab. Seamus is close behind him, but he stops by Toby and Krel and kneels beside them.

Ikram, Douxie, and Nimue enter soon after – if Toby has to guess, Mort probably ran back in case Krel’s injury is something serious, and Seamus probably ran back because he was worried about Krel. The only reason Steve enters last as opposed to also having run back is because of his crutches. Otherwise, Toby knows he would have been here before anyone else – Steve may try to hide it, but it’s obvious he cares about his friends.

“How is he?” Steve asks as he makes it down the stairs. “Is he okay? He’s breathing, right? Uh, does he need to breathe – they went to the moon, didn’t they, so maybe that isn’t what we need to worry about? Does he have a pulse – wait, Akiridions don’t have pulses. Ugh! Why is it so hard to make sure he’s okay?”

“Steve, stop panicking,” says Mort as he walks back into the room. “Toby, out of the way. Why haven’t I made friends with any healers? I’ve lived here for sixteen years and I don’t know any healers.”

He takes one blood-soaked corner of the washcloth and presses it to the corner of a piece of paper he’s brought out. Toby watches curiously as it fills with information. Magic is awesome. Toby wishes he had magic.

“Alright, alright,” says Mort, visibly calming down. “It looks worse than it is. Krel’s going to be fine. I’ll make a potion for his concussion and he’ll be right as rain. I’ll go do that.”

He stands and folds the sheet of paper before walking back into his potion lab. Toby is relieved that Krel’s not badly injured, but it doesn’t make him feel any better about the BK situation.

“You kids were lucky,” says Ikram, looking briefly at Steve, who’s finally sat down upon learning Krel’s not dying or anything, then back to Toby and Krel. “We should have known better than to just leave you two alone with him.”

Toby knows she doesn’t mean anything by it, but it does kind of hurt that she obviously doesn’t think he and Krel are capable, even working together. Yeah, Krel got a bit banged up and the Knight got away, but Krel’s still here, isn’t he? And Toby also isn’t dead. It’s the best worst case scenario they could have managed.

“So now what?” says Steve. “Once again, we have a crazy Knight running around Arcadia trying to kill us.”

“Two, possibly,” says Ikram with a wince.

“_Two_!?” Steve shrieks.

“Not two,” groans Toby.

“It’s likely the wizard has noticed the Black Knight’s temporary absence,” says Ikram. “Be on the lookout in case he has sent the third. I have little experience with him, but he will be as dangerous as if not more so than the Black Knight. The same trick will not work twice.”

Steve rubs his hands down his face. “We’re screwed. We’re completely screwed.”

“We’ll–”

“Don’t say up training again,” says Toby. “Training is as upped as it can get. Face it, we’re not going to learn how to fight any faster.”

Ikram purses her lips and nods. Nimue sits down in one of the armchairs and crosses her arms.

“You’re better than you were,” she says. “It’s going to have to do. You can’t spend every day for the rest of the summer just training. We need to start preparing for the endgame.”

“The end of the world,” says Douxie grimly. “We need to start figuring out what it is and how to stop it. You all are safe here. Your homes have also been protected.”

“Yeah, but how do we get home?” Steve bites out. “Even if all three of us stick together, I’m practically useless, and Toby and Krel are mediocre fighters at best. Two Knights against the three of us? We’re _dead_.”

Toby’s definitely going to come back to the “practically useless” comment at a later time, but otherwise, Steve does have a point. They wouldn’t stand a chance against both Knights.

“Until I can figure out a safe escort system, I ask you three to stay here for now,” Mort says as he walks back into the room, syringe in hand. “Excuse me, Toby… here’s hoping Akiridions have a circulatory system halfway like a human’s.”

Toby shudders and looks away while Mort administers the shot. Shots kind of freak him out, okay? A few moments later, Krel stirs and slowly blinks awake. He looks really disoriented and confused at first, but then his eyes widen and he shoots into a sitting position.

“The Black Knight!” he blurts, swaying dangerously as he tries to push himself to his feet.

“Woah, woah, take it easy,” says Mort, grabbing him by the shoulders and coaxing him back to sitting. “You’re alright.”

“The Black Knight got away!” Krel exclaims. His eyes dart around the room in alarm. “We have to do something! He could be back any moment!”

“You’re safe here,” Mort says. “The Black Knight can’t get past my wards.”

Krel relaxes somewhat at that. He puts a hand to his still sluggishly bleeding head, then hisses and pulls it back. “Not this again.”

“You got a little bit banged up,” says Toby.

“Let me get you a band-aid,” says Douxie.

“How are you feeling?” Archie asks, pawing lightly at Krel’s leg. When he determines Krel isn’t injured there, he climbs on and perches on his thigh. “Headache gone, I hope?”

“Yeah, mostly,” says Krel. “What happened after he knocked me out?”

“Uh,” says Toby, “I hit him, he dropped you, then I shot him, then he ran off.”

“Good job, by the way,” says Mort. “You managed to prevent this whole thing from ending in tragedy. Well done, Toby.”

Toby’s cheeks warm. He guesses he did, sort of. It was more just panicked reacting than anything else. Krel offers him a smile and pats his shoulder. “Thanks, Toby.”

“Anytime, man,” Toby says.

“So we’re here for the next bit?” Steve asks glumly. Toby shares his lack of enthusiasm. It had been nice to sleep in his own bed and see Nana and Aaarrrgghh!!! again. There’s _really_ not room for Aaarrrgghh!!! in Mort’s upstairs apartment. It only barely fits all five of them. An extra giant troll would be way too much.

“I’ll figure something out,” Mort says. “But until then, yes. I’m sorry.”

“Wait,” says Krel, brow furrowing. “We need to get Gaylen’s core.”

Toby and Steve exchange uneasy looks. Mort’s lips press in a thin line. Clearly, he doesn’t like the idea of having Gaylen’s core here any more than Steve and Toby do.

“I thought you said it was a dead-end,” Nimue says.

“It – it is,” says Krel. “But it’s still a dangerous dead end. We can’t let it fall into the wrong hands.”

“The wards around your house are as secure as the wards here,” Mort says. “No one will be able to access Gaylen’s core. It stays.”

Krel’s brow furrows and he frowns, the type of frown that tells Toby to be suspicious, the one Jim always got when told a bad idea was, in fact, a bad idea. Mort sighs and pinches the bridge of his nose.

“Krel,” he says, “promise me you won’t sneak out in the middle of the night to get Gaylen’s core.”

“I promise,” Krel says, way too quickly.

Toby meets Seamus’s eyes. Seamus shakes his head. Good. Toby’s not the only one who picked up on that. At least Krel’s a bad liar. They know he’ll try to sneak out so they can stop him. Probably. When Krel gets his mind set on something, not even the laws of physics can stop him.

“Okay, well, since we didn’t get lunch, I say we order a couple of pizzas,” says Nimue. She glances at Ikram. “I know a good place that even makes them halal, so we’ll all be good.”

“Pizza sounds excellent,” agrees Krel. He looks pleased with the subject change, which only makes Toby more suspicious.

Well, whatever his dumb plan is, he’s sure they’ll all find out tonight. Hopefully in time to find a way to stop him.

They left to their own devices for the rest of the afternoon, provided they don’t leave the premises. Toby helps Douxie in the shop downstairs after he calls Nana to tell her he won’t be home tonight. She’s worried about him and he feels bad, but there isn’t much he can do. Part of him wonders if he _could _go home. After all, the Knights aren’t after him. He won’t, though, even if he can. He’ll stay for solidarity. If Steve and Krel can’t go home, neither can Toby. Seamus decides to stay too, claiming that they’re all in this together. Toby knows Steve and Krel appreciate the support.

There’s not _really_ room in the guest room for all four of them, but they’ll make it work. Douxie finds an old sleeping bag and offers it to them. Krel very questionably is the first to offer to take the sleeping bag. Toby suspects it’s because the air mattress creaks and he’d be sharing the bed with someone else.

“We really need to figure out an advantage soon,” says Seamus, sitting up on the bed against the backboard.

“You’re telling us,” Krel grumbles. “You’ve only been dealing with this for less than a week.”

“Point,” admits Seamus. “Even more then. How long has this been going on? It’s been since the Morando thing, hasn’t it?”

“Yeah,” says Steve, also on the bed but grouchily laying down. “It sucks.”

“Honestly, after this, I don’t think I’ll ever want to see another apocalypse movie,” Toby says. “We’ve had three. In real life.”

“Maybe I should have gone back to Akiridion-5,” says Krel. “Maybe we all should have gone to Akiridion-5. We’ve never had any world-ending events there. The worst we had was a coup, and now it’s over.”

“Would you count the fight between Seklos and Gaylen as a world-ending event?” Toby asks.

Krel frowns. “Hm. Good question. I don’t know.”

“Maybe we need to invent some sort of magic tracking spell,” says Seamus.

“There isn’t one already?” Krel says. “That’s dumb. You’d think you’d have something like that.”

Seamus shrugs. “I bet we could think one up, and then we just find all the really powerful wizards and interrogate them to figure out who our bad guy is.”

“That seems really inefficient,” Steve points out.

“I still think it’s Mordred.”

“Yeah, we got that,” says Toby.

“So we’re probably looking for some old white guy,” Seamus continues as if Toby hadn’t spoken. “He might not be old looking, I guess. But almost definitely white. I bet he has a beard.”

“Why?” Krel asks.

“I dunno,” says Seamus. “Seems like he’d have a beard.”

“That doesn’t make any sense. He didn’t have a beard in the book.”

“I just imagine he’d have a beard, okay? It doesn’t have to make sense.”

“I’m just saying, it’s irrational to assume someone has a beard,” says Krel. “So is – what does that mean, anyway, _white_? His skin is the colour of a sheet of paper? That would look very unhealthy if you ask me.”

“No – it doesn’t – I don’t know how to explain this to you,” Seamus says. “Me and Steve and Toby, we’re white. You’re not. It’s why my dad hates you so much.”

“That makes even less sense,” says Krel. “You’re all, like… light orange or pink or something. And why would someone hate someone else because they look different? I thought your dad didn’t like me because I’m good at math.”

“We’re – never mind,” says Seamus. “Don’t worry about it. I’m just saying that Mordred is from medieval Britain.”

“What’s a mid-evil Britain?”

Seamus sighs. “Medieval, not – it’s way too late at night for this.”

“Yeah, we should probably hit the sack,” says Toby. Then, before Krel can ask, he clarifies. “Go to sleep, I mean. We’ll figure something out tomorrow.”

Steve yawns dramatically. “Yeah, sounds good. Night, guys.”

“Goodnight,” Toby chirps back.

“Night,” Seamus adds.

Krel follows quickly with his own, and Seamus reaches over to turn out the lamp. Toby is fully intending on staying up to make sure Krel doesn’t try anything, but it’s also been a really long day. Despite his best efforts, he finds himself drifting off and hoping Mort has trip-wires on the door or something.

Toby wakes to the sound of a window opening, but he’s too tired at first to realise it’s a window opening until he hears Seamus yelp Krel’s name and fall out of bed. He sits up and runs to the window and Seamus pulls himself to his feet, just in time to see Krel hoverboarding away.

“Dang it, Krel,” he mutters.

“Huh, wha?” Steve mumbles as Toby flips the light on. “What’s going on?”

“Krel snuck out,” Seamus says. He sounds kind of impressed. “I didn’t know he had it in him.”

“I’m getting Mort,” says Toby. “He’s gonna get himself killed!”

Mort is already awake and leaving his room when Toby arrives. He motions for the three of them to follow him.

“I set a ward to alert me if one of you left,” he says. “I was expecting this. Come on, I’ll drive and we’ll try to catch up with him.”

He grumbles something about foolish children under his breath. Douxie appears from his bedroom and groggily follows them down the stairs. They pause only long enough that Steve can make it down without falling, then rush out the door and to Mort’s truck.

Toby is going to kill Krel. Metaphorically. Seriously, Gaylen’s core is perfectly safe. It doesn’t need to be at Mort’s. Is it really worth risking his life like this? If Krel gets attacked by the Black Knight alone, that’s it. Game over, they lose.

Whatever route Krel took to his house – assuming he’s at the Mothership at all and not kidnapped by BK – isn’t near the roads, so they don’t find him on their way. When they reach the Mothership, Ricky and Lucy are as eager to see them as always.

“Is Krel here?” Toby demands before they can start on their 1950s parents routine.

“Sure is, champ!” Ricky says. “Just headed downstairs.”

“Isn’t it a little late for you children to be out?” Lucy waves a wooden spoon at them accusingly, then turns on Mort. “It’s ten PM, do you know where your children are?”

“All accounted for here, evidently,” Mort replies dryly. “Come on. Let’s go yell at Krel.”

They don’t have to wonder where on the Mothership Krel is. They go straight for the lab where they’d been keeping Gaylen’s core. Sure enough, Krel is in there, slowly approaching Gaylen’s core with outstretched hands.

“What do you think you’re doing?” Mort snaps. Krel yelps and spins around, eyes wide, holding all four arms up in a picture of innocence. “Get away from that. Do not touch it.”

“I have an idea,” says Krel. “Please understand. It’s the only idea we have.”

Toby’s eyes dart to Gaylen’s core, then back to Krel, and he understands what Krel’s plan is. He shakes his head and tries to find the words to tell Krel just how much he hates this plan, how he can’t go through with it.

“No way,” Steve says. “No. That’s a crazy plan, Krel. It’s a bad idea. You saw what that thing did to Morando. Get away from the core.”

“This is _my_ choice,” Krel insists. He looks a lot less sure than he sounds, hands trembling and brow knitted above his eyes, contorting the crest he’d once told Toby was the mark of his ancestors. “It’s the only choice.”

“If it’s the only choice, then it isn’t _your_ choice,” Toby says. He remembers another only choice – the only way to beat Gunmar, according to Merlin – the choice that was never a choice to begin with. “I won’t let you do this. I won’t let another friend do something like this.”

“Toby, this isn’t like that,” Krel says.

“How is this not like that?” Toby snaps. “You merge with the core, and we could lose you. This is _worse_!”

“I’m sorry,” Krel says.

“Krel, we’ll figure something else out,” says Douxie. “This isn’t the only choice. This isn’t in the running. Okay? We’ll figure something else out.”

“We’ve been trying to figure something else out!” Krel exclaims. He throws his hands out and shakes his head, eyes blown wide. “We haven’t! We’re not going to! At least if I integrate with Gaylen’s core, we might have its power on our side.”

“Or you’ll go crazy,” Steve shoots back. “And then what?”

“I don’t know!” Krel shakes his head and takes a step backwards, towards Gaylen’s core. “Then I guess you’ll have to figure out how to kill me.”

“No!” Toby and Seamus both cry. Steve moves his mouth like he’s trying to say something, but he seems too horrified by the very idea to come up with a response. Douxie looks between his frowning uncle and a desperate Krel in what seems to be growing alarm.

“I _have_ to do this,” Krel whispers. He blinks rapidly, and Toby realises Krel’s scared. He doesn’t want to do this as much as they don’t want him to. Still, he raises his voice again and insists, “I have to do this.”

He starts to turn, and Toby shoots forward and tackles him away from the core. They hit a table, and it rolls away from them and scatters its contents on the floor. Toby pins Krel to the ground and swallows back tears.

“Toby, please,” Krel pleads.

“I won’t let you do this.” Toby uses all of his strength to hold his friend down, to prevent another friend from making _the only choice_ and possibly ending up lost to Toby forever. “Not like Jim. Not again. You can’t, Krel.”

“This might be the only way we stand a chance,” Krel implores. “I – I don’t like it either, but it’s the _only way_.”

Toby tries to speak, but the only thing that comes out is a weak sob. Tears drip down his cheeks. Krel’s mouth tightens. Toby knows he isn’t meaning to hurt him, or anyone, or even himself, but he is. This isn’t fair. This choice shouldn’t be something Krel ever even thought of having to make.

There’s a hand on Toby’s shoulder. He glances back. Mort is stony-faced.

“He’s right,” Mort says grimly. “We haven’t found anything else. This could be essential.”

“You can’t let him,” Toby begs.

“Mort, you know this is crazy,” Seamus adds. “We’ve been studying this thing for days. It could kill Krel, it could make him go completely insane – this is nuts!”

“Sometimes the crazy way is the only way,” says Mort. “I don’t like it. I really don’t like it. But… if Krel’s sure.”

Krel swallows visibly, then nods. “I’m sure.”

“Then it’s his risk to take.” Mort gently pulls Toby away. Toby furiously wipes at his cheeks, angry at Krel for wanting to do this, angry at Mort for letting him, angry at himself for not being able to stop it. He wasn’t able to help Jim, either. He has a history of not being able to help his friends, doesn’t he?

“Just – just promise me,” Krel says hesitantly as he pulls himself to his feet. “If I go – crazy – like Morando or – or like Gaylen – promise me you’ll find a way to stop me. Permanently.”

They all know this means kill. The idea of killing his friend makes Toby sick to his stomach. He shakes his head. Seamus opens his mouth, probably to refuse outright, but Mort beats him to it.

“I promise,” he says.

Toby sucks in a breath and stares at him in horror. How could Mort promise something like that? Krel nods gravely. Toby feels betrayed. They could never kill Krel. How could Mort promise?

“If this goes completely wrong,” says Krel, “tell Aja I’m sorry. And I love her. And – and you guys.”

Then he turns and picks up Gaylen’s core. At first, nothing happens, and he turns back around to face them, but then the core’s light grows blinding. Toby has to shield his eyes against it – it’s like staring directly into the sun. A heart-wrenching scream breaks the silence, and Toby almost tries to grab Krel, yank the core away from him. He sounds like he’s in pain. It’s the worst sound Toby’s ever heard, and it doesn’t stop, even as Krel’s voice grows audibly hoarse.

“It’s hurting him!” Seamus yells, lurching forward. Mort grabs him by the arm. “Mort, it’s _killing him_!”

“Stay back,” Mort says. Despite his earlier stony-faced promise, he looks pale and scared like the rest of them.

Finally, the light fades, and with it, so does Krel’s cries. It probably wasn’t more than a few minutes, but the whole experience feels like it took hours. Toby’s trembling, and Seamus still looks ready to launch himself towards Krel at any second.

Gaylen’s core is gone. Krel wavers in place for a few seconds, then he drops to the floor like a puppet cut from its strings.


	14. Gaylen's Heir

Somebody is yelling. It sounds kind of like Toby, but Krel feels too out of it to be sure. He tries to focus on what they’re yelling, but he can’t quite concentrate long enough to catch more than snippets.

“–never should have let him–“

“–wrong with him? Krel! _Krel_–“

“–to Akiridion-5, I can’t do anything for him–“

Focusing takes too much work. Krel sinks back into painless, cool unconsciousness.

“–Krel, hang on, little brother! You’re going to be okay–“

Aja? Is that Aja? What is Aja doing here?

“–readings are all over the place–“

“–don’t know, your majesty.”

“Krel! Krel, just hang in there!”

It smells kind of like Akiridion-5 here. Kind of like the hospital on Earth, too. A different but still similar sort of sanitised smell. Huh. That’s kind of weird. He feels weird. He tries to open his eyes, and almost manages to for a second, but he only catches blurry blue shapes and a few distinctly different, human shapes, before he can’t keep his eyes open anymore.

Darkness claims him again.

The first thing Krel notes as he awakens is that he seems to be floating in open space. He’s not as panicked as he probably should be. He’s not anywhere near any stars or planets – they all look distant, as if the ground on Earth had simply dropped away and he is left with the sky all around him.

“Hello, child.”

Krel spins around to face the speaker. His eyes widen in shock. “Seklos and Gaylen.”

“Just Gaylen, actually,” says the man. He definitely _looks_ like Gaylen, except maybe a less – power-hungry Gaylen than Krel usually sees in illustrations. His face is kind and welcoming. “Greetings. I’ve been expecting you.”

“You’ve… been… I don’t understand,” says Krel helplessly. “What is going on? Where am I?”

“Nowhere,” says Gaylen, “and everywhere. What did you expect? You integrated with my core, did you not?”

“I… did.” Krel looks around, at the beautiful expanse of space and then back to Gaylen, _the_ Gaylen. “Did this happen for Morando too?”

“Oh, no, absolutely not,” says Gaylen. “It’s more – well, you know computers. Morando was – how do you put it? Hacking in. Whereas you, dear boy, have the password.”

“I – password?” repeats Krel. “What password?”

“Well, more accurately, I suppose you _are_ the password,” Gaylen admits. He sits, cross-legged, in mid-air. “Do you know why Akiridion’s throne remained conflicted between two houses until your parents wedded?”

“Um,” says Krel, “not exactly. I just know that both houses felt they had an equal right to the throne.”

“For very different reasons,” says Gaylen. “You see, House Akraohm – your mother’s house – is descended from Seklos. And House Ventis – your father’s house – is descended from me.”

Krel isn’t sure how to respond to this. That means – he and Aja are descended from Seklos and Gaylen? It’s – crazy, but not that hard to believe. Sort of. Actually, it’s kind of hard to wrap his head around. 

“You and your sister are the first to be descended from both of us,” Gaylen continues. “And you, child, I have chosen as my heir.”

“Me?” Krel says in disbelief. “Why me? Why not – Aja? She’s much more suited for something like this. I – I don’t understand.”

He’s also not fully convinced, at this point, that this isn’t some sort of hallucination resulting from integrating with Gaylen’s core. That sounds infinitely more believable than all of this.

“Aja belongs to Seklos,” says Gaylen. “They’re both warriors, and excellent ones at that. I was never a warrior. People like us, Krel… we are artists. We build things, with our minds, with our bare hands. We are creators. Yet, we can also destroy. We can do terrible things, if we let ourselves. I regret to admit that I let myself.”

“And Seklos killed you,” Krel murmurs.

Gaylen nods. “Rightfully so. Now, you, Krel… in merging with my core, you have gained the ability to create and destroy on a scale you never before imagined. And you’ve broken the laws of physics! This is a lot to rest on your shoulders, and for that, I apologise.”

“Are you – going to train me?” asks Krel, still not convinced this isn’t a dream. Even if it is, he’d appreciate some training. Gaylen’s powers intimidate him. He has no idea how to use them – if he even wants to use them, though he’ll have to if he wants to help defeat the wizard and his Knights.

“I cannot, I’m afraid,” says Gaylen. “And we mustn’t talk long. Instead, I am going to warn you. Your planet – Earth, that is – is in grave danger.”

“Yeah, we know,” Krel points out. “But from what? What is the wizard’s plan?”

Gaylen seems to think for a moment, before finally speaking – in the least helpful way possible. “Origin of celestial core, great and strange and powerful, should it break to flexel fine, then it is the end of times. Cracks in stone apart get pulled, shattered world exists no more.”

Krel furrows his brow. “What? What does that even mean?”

“Well, I can’t give you all the answers,” says Gaylen.

“Why not!?”

“I’m afraid our time is almost up,” says Gaylen. Krel scowls. His warning is the least helpful thing Krel’s probably ever heard. He offers up a small, round object to Krel with a serene smile. “When you get the chance, read the inscription. I hope you’ll be pleased. Had some help with this one.”

Krel glances down at the object – some kind of device, words curving around the side and what looks like a miniature version of Gaylen’s core on the inside. It looks like Akiridion tech, but there’s something… different about it. “Help? From who?”

Gaylen’s smile widens. “Awake.”

Krel blinks, and suddenly the stars and Gaylen disappear, and Krel’s eyes shoot open to – a med-wing room in the palace on Akiridion-5? He carefully sits up and looks around. When did he get back to Akiridion-5? Aja is asleep on a chair next to his bed, Luug curled up in her lap. He wonders, worriedly, how much she knows. Steve and Seamus are both also asleep. Steve is in a chair next to Aja, snoring, and Seamus has his head resting on his folded arms on Krel’s bed. Toby is across the room, on the phone, and Eli is pacing, unaware of Krel’s awakening.

“Okay, Jimbo. Yep, I’ll talk to you later,” Toby is saying. He sighs and pockets his phone before turning around. His eyes land on Krel, awake, and his face lights up in a grin. “Krel! You’re awake!”

His shout wakes the others in the room.

“Krel!” Seamus exclaims. Steve echoes him with a delighted laugh.

“Little brother, you’re okay!” Aja cries, practically climbing onto the bed to pull him into a hug. She pulls away, but keeps a firm grip on his shoulders. Luug leaps onto the bed and forces himself between Aja and Krel to lick Krel’s face. “I was so worried! What happened?”

Behind her, Toby and Steve both shake their heads and make hand motions across their throats. Ah. They haven’t told her anything.

“I… don’t know,” he says. It isn’t even a lie, because he’s still not completely sure that vision wasn’t just a hallucination. Then his grip tightens on something and he realises he still has the device – okay. Not a hallucination.

“How do you feel?” Aja asks.

“I feel – great,” admits Krel, surprised to find that it’s true. He’s practically buzzing with energy, and even his slight headache from the Black Knight is completely gone. “Better than ever, actually.”

“I was so scared,” Aja says. Krel immediately feels bad. “The doctors said there was something wrong with your _core_, and I thought–“

He swallows. He knows what she thought. Injuries and illnesses to an Akiridion’s core were almost always fatal. There are maybe five records of people surviving such wounds, and they’re always touted as miracles.

“I’m okay,” he says. “I promise.”

“You’re staying here until the doctor is sure you’re okay,” she orders, relief morphing instantly into familiar anger. “And then a few more delsons. First that bounty hunter, now this? Maybe staying on Earth was too dangerous. Maybe you should come home.”

“What?” Krel jerks away from her and crosses his arms. “I _am_ home, Aja. Earth is my home. I’m not leaving just because you think it’s too dangerous!”

“I just want you to be safe, little brother.” Usually, the endearment is almost sweet, but Krel thinks it sounds kind of condescending. Aja isn’t that much older than him. She doesn’t _know better_. “You’d be welcomed back here with open arms. People miss you–”

“You miss me,” Krel snaps. “Maybe Eli and Varvatos and Zadra, but that’s it! No one else _misses_ me. No one else even _likes_ me. I don’t have anyone else here!”

“You helped stop Morando! You’re a hero! And you’re the king-in-waiting!”

“I don’t want people to pretend to be friends with me because I’m a _hero_ and I’m _royalty_! I have friends! On Earth! My _home_!”

“I just want you to be safe–”

“I’d rather be in danger and happy with my friends then safe and lonely.”

“Look, Aja,” says Steve, cutting into the conversation and pulling a fuming Aja back. “You can’t just order Krel to come back here if he doesn’t want to.”

“You too?” Aja says in disbelief. “I thought you’d be on my side.”

“I am – sort of, I mean.” Steve flounders for a moment. “I want Krel to be safe, too, but what he wants is more important. You can’t lock him up here like – like a princess in a tower.”

Aja’s jaw tightens and her brows lower even further, but ultimately, she just lets out an annoyed growl and turns and storms out of the room in typical Aja fashion. Luug looks between the door and Krel, then leaps down and chases Aja. Krel hasn’t seen her this angry with him in a very long time. He feels bad, but she can’t just demand he come back to Akiridion-5 to stay. He can’t leave with the world literally ending back on Earth, and besides, he doesn’t want to.

Eli looks between them and the door. “Someone should… go after her.”

“Feel free,” says Krel flatly. “She’s going to be angry for the next horvath.”

“Steve?” asks Eli.

“Uh, I think she’s mad at me, too, dude,” points out Steve.

Eli sighs and mutters something about having to do everything around here, before leaving the room to go find Aja. Well, at least now Krel can brief his friends about all the weirdness.

“Well, that makes me glad to be an only child,” Seamus mumbles. “You okay, man?”

“Yeah,” Krel says quietly.

“Not feeling any crazy evil destroy-the-planet urges?” prompts Toby anxiously.

Krel shakes his head. “Not at all. I feel normal. Well. Not normal, but – not anything bad.”

“Good,” says Toby. “Keep us posted.”

“So, I talked to Gaylen,” says Krel, quietly, in case someone else might overhear. At best, they’d think he’s crazy. At worst, they’d realise he’s telling the truth.

“What?” Steve exclaims. “I thought he was dead!”

“He is,” says Krel. “I think. But I still talked to him. Apparently, I’m his heir… or something.”

Steve’s face lights up and he holds up a hand for a high-five. “Heir squad! Alright!”

Krel laughs and high-fives him.

“You are not calling yourselves that,” says Seamus. “You need more than two people to be a squad.”

“Says who?”

“Says me.”

“Heir Squared,” says Krel, because he can’t help but contribute to this nonsense. Seamus groans loudly. Steve grins and claps. Toby rolls his eyes. Krel is reminded, again, why he wants to stay on Earth, because this is what he’s been missing out on for years living on Akiridion-5. He likes having friends, who like him for him. He never had that here, and he doesn’t imagine he ever will.

“Heir Squared!” Steve repeats in glee. “Perfect!”

“All of my friends are dweebs,” says Seamus. “The only normal person I know is Logan.”

“Okay, okay,” says Krel. “But there’s something else. Gaylen said he had a warning.”

This sobers everyone immediately. Krel tries to remember the exact wording of the riddle Gaylen gave him. In retrospect, it sounded familiar, but Krel can’t place why.

“It went something like this,” he says, then quotes, “Origin of celestial core, great and strange and powerful, should it break to flexel fine, then it is the end of times. Cracks in stone apart get pulled, shattered world exists no more.”

“That’s… all sorts of weird,” says Toby. “Why couldn’t he give us a warning that makes sense?”

“That’s exactly what I’m saying,” Krel agrees. “It’s… familiar. Like I’ve heard it before.”

“Sorry to interrupt,” says a new voice. Krel startles, as do his friends. He hopes the doctor didn’t hear too much. She doesn’t look incredibly suspicious, still smiling warmly at them. “Those verses you just recited, they’re from an old nursery rhyme.”

“A… nursery rhyme?” Seamus echoes.

The doctor nods. “My friends and I used to have a dance to it and everything. It’s kind of morbid in retrospect, but, you know kids. We just thought it was a fun little rhyme.”

“A nursery rhyme, of course,” says Krel. But why would Gaylen give him a _nursery rhyme_ as a warning?

“Those were the days,” she chuckles. “Alright, my liege. How are you feeling?”

“Fine,” says Krel. “Good.”

“I’m going to run a few more scans to make sure everything’s working properly,” she says. “You can never be too careful when it comes to your core.”

“Of course,” Krel replies. “Go ahead.”

“Uh, ma’am,” says Toby, as Krel helpfully holds his arms out to let her scan him more easily. “What exactly is the nursery rhyme about?”

“The end of the world,” says the doctor. “I think there’s something else, but I don’t know all the details. You could probably find more in the library.”

Well, Aja won’t let him leave Akiridion-5 anytime soon anyway. They definitely have time to check out the library for what the nursery rhyme is about. If it’s really about the end of the world, then maybe it’s more relevant than Krel originally thought. He still wishes Gaylen had just given them a straightforward answer.

“Alright, I’m not seeing any major anomalies,” says the doctor. “Take it easy, my liege. Your core’s energy output levels are still above normal.”

That’s not at all surprising. He’s mostly surprised they’re not through the roof like Gaylen’s core was. He’s grateful – that would be incredibly suspicious, and he bets even Aja could guess from that what’s going on.

“I’ll be back later,” says the doctor. “Stay in bed.”

“I will,” Krel promises. For now he will, anyway. He’s not sure how much longer he can stay cooped up in a med-wing bed. He hates being cooped up like this. She leaves the room. Once he’s sure they’re alone again, he opens his hand to show them the device Gaylen gave him.

“Woah,” says Toby. “What is that? It looks kinda like an amulet!”

“Gaylen gave it to me,” says Krel. “He said to read the inscription.”

“Well, read it,” Seamus insists.

Krel squints to be sure he can make it out. “In the name of Gaylen?”

The device lights up, then Krel is lifted off the bed. The device flies to cover his core, and then pieces of metal appear out of thin air and mould to his form. A few seconds later, and he’s fully decked out in a surprisingly comfortable suit of armour. He falls back onto the bed with a metallic clatter.

“Oh my gosh,” Toby exclaims. “Oh my gosh, oh my gosh! You got a cool suit of armour like Jim’s!”

“I – I guess so?” says Krel in amazement. He holds out an arm to inspect the intricate carvings on the dark grey metal. The entire suit is roughly the same dark grey colour, and there appears to be some sort of black under-suit as well. He doesn’t seem to have a helmet – oh, no, the moment he thinks about it, a helmet appears. He awkwardly grasps at it, until Seamus snaps a picture with his phone and shows it to him. “Huh. I look kind of like…”

“Gaylen,” Toby completes. He looks somewhat subdued by the realisation. “Makes sense. I guess.”

Krel climbs out of bed so he can test the feel of the armour walking around. He feels awkward in it at first, but it only takes a few steps to get used to the weight of it. Part of him wants to show Aja, partially because she’d love it, partially because then he could more definitively say he’d be safe on Earth. Unfortunately, showing it to Aja means explaining where he got it, which means explaining the Gaylen stuff, which means explaining the wizard stuff.

“Man, I want armour, too,” Steve whines.

“You’ll get it when you graduate, relax,” Seamus says. “Kind of an archaic practice, but, hey, cool armour.”

“Wait, really?”

“Hey, so we’ll all have armour,” Toby says brightly. “Nice. We definitely need it.”

“What can your suit do?” asks Seamus.

“Uh, protect me, I hope,” says Krel.

“No, no, he’s right,” says Toby. “Jim’s armour has all sorts of cool features, and your armour was a gift from a literal god. It might have something awesome!”

“Try for a shield,” Steve suggests. “You need one.”

“How am I supposed to do that?” Krel waves his hands awkwardly as if that might summon a shield, but he has no idea how this armour works, so it doesn’t. “Any ideas?”

“Think fast!” Seamus shouts, before chucking the nearest small object at him. Krel throws up his hands. A glowing white shield flickers into existence in front of him. He stares at it, then lowers his arms. It vanishes.

“I don’t think that was the armour,” says Toby carefully.

“Hey, why is your Gaylen magic white when Morando’s was red?” Steve demands.

“I – I don’t know,” says Krel, still not sure how he did that.

“You know,” says Toby, climbing to stand on the bed so he’s Krel’s height and then leaning in Krel’s face. “Your eyes are white. Weren’t they blue before?”

Krel’s apparently white eyes widen. “Do you think Aja noticed?”

“If she did, she didn’t say anything,” says Steve. “You’re also not giant. What’s up with that?”

“I know just as much as you guys do,” Krel says. “Maybe because I’m actually Gaylen’s heir and Morando wasn’t?”

“Sounds legit,” says Toby. “What else can you do? That shield is pretty awesome, man. Can you make weapons? Do you even need a serrator?”

“Let’s find out,” says Krel. He holds out a hand and tries to concentrate on forming a sword like his serrator. He’s not sure how else to do it, so if this doesn’t work – oh, no, it worked. He gives the white sword a few unsure swings.

“Alright!” Seamus exclaims.

“Awesome-sauce,” Toby adds delightedly.

Krel lets the sword disappear. Huh, he’s getting the hang of this. He holds out his arms towards the wall; on cue, blasters form on his forearms. Not on cue, the blasters shoot energy at the wall and Krel is blown backwards to the floor.

“Okay,” he says, “I think we’re in trouble now.”

“Quick, back on the bed,” Toby says.

Krel climbs back on the bed and tugs at the device, sitting snugly in the middle of the armour’s chest plate. It doesn’t budge. He tugs harder. He’s certain a doctor or guard will be here any moment. “How do I get this thing off?”

“Hang on,” says Toby. “I think Jimbo had to like – relax or something? Just try… I dunno, willing it to come off?”

It’s worth a try. A lot of this magic stuff is weird like that, and this whole Gaylen situation is weird. The weapons worked that way. He winces and tries to wish the armour away. A few moments later, the device falls into his waiting hands. He lets out a sigh of relief.

“That would have been bad for someone to walk into,” he says.

“No kidding,” says Steve.

He finally hears running footsteps, and shoves the device under the bedcovers just as Zadra skids into the room, followed rapidly by Varvatos.

“Krel! Are you under attack?” Varvatos roars, serrator at ready.

Zadra gestures to the scorch marks on the wall. “What in Gaylen’s core happened here?”

Krel and Steve exchange looks. She’s exactly right, even if she doesn’t know it.

“My bad,” says Toby. “Won’t happen again. Just – boys being boys. Messing around. We’re all good.”

“Yeah, we’re fine,” Krel agrees. “Don’t worry. You can get back to whatever you were doing.”

Varvatos shrugs and leaves. Zadra glares at them both threateningly and suspiciously, but also leaves. Part of Krel is sad to see them go, because it feels like it’s been forever since he’s seen them and he wants to catch up, but they really need to figure out all this Gaylen stuff and they can’t know. Once he’s sure they’re gone, Krel pulls out the device and holds it up to inspect it in the light. It’s not too suspicious looking on its own. If anyone sees it and asks, he could even say it was just something he was tinkering with. Even Aja would fall for that.

“So I guess the plan from here is to figure out that nursery rhyme,” says Seamus.

“You think Aja will let us see the royal library?” asks Toby. “Do you guys _have_ a royal library?”

“Yeah,” says Krel. “And there’s other libraries in the city, and if there’s something we need but don’t have, we can ask the Galactic Scholars for information. We might be able to get more information on – you know – from them as well.”

“Well, you’re stuck here for the rest of the day,” says Steve. “I think Aja and the doctors might actually kill you if we smuggle you out.”

Krel grimaces. “Yeah. You’re right.”

“The three of us will go to the library,” says Seamus. “We’ll call you and keep you on the line as we look so you can direct us and stuff. Does anyone else find it weird that our phones even work here?”

“I’ve just learned to roll with it, dude,” says Toby.

“It’s as good a plan as any,” says Krel, although he hates the part of the plan where he has to stay here in the med-wing bed. “I’m not sure how to search it, but I guess look for nursery rhymes and maybe some of the keywords.”

“Celestial core might be a good start,” says Steve. “Or, I dunno, _shattered world_. Kind of ominous.”

“Is that – is that talking about _our_ world?” Toby asks.

Krel turns the device over in his hands and shrugs. “Maybe not originally, but now I would say yes.”

Toby leans his head back and lets out a long, annoyed groan. “I quit. Can we quit? I’d like to quit.”

Steve sighs. “You and me both, man.”

Aja came back not long after his friends left for the library, along with Varvatos and Zadra. Krel had to hang up to avoid them overhearing any of their research, although he suspects they’ll need to tell Aja anyway to get info from the Galactic Scholars. He has a feeling they’ll listen to her much quicker than to him, king-in-waiting or not. He’s not stupid. He knows people on Akiridion-5 aren’t happy he stayed on Earth. He doesn’t really regret it. Aja seems to be handling the planet fine.

It’s nice to finally catch up with Varvatos and Zadra again, even if he has to be careful with what he tells them about his time on Earth. Most of his life has been this Knight problem, so he doesn’t have much he can say. Part of him wishes he could fill one of them in and bring them back with him. Either of them would be a huge help against the Knights. Neither of them would lie to Aja, though, so it’s not an option.

By the middle of the night, or what he’s pretty sure is the middle of the night, he’s already sick of the med-wing room. Sneaking out is really Aja’s talent, but he’s almost certain everyone is asleep and he needs a chance to walk off some of his pent-up energy, so he makes his way as quietly as he can out of the med-wing room. He wanders, at first, but ultimately, he finds himself at the star-deck. It’s second nature. He hesitates in the doorway, then takes a deep breath and walks in, running a hand over the activation panel to turn on the constellation hologram.

Before everything happened, on quiet nights, Mama and Papa would bring him and Aja here and teach them the constellations that surrounded Akiridion-5, the ones that couldn’t be seen anymore but once could, thousands of keltons ago when the light pollution wasn’t so bad. After bad dreams or when he couldn’t sleep, Krel would always gravitate here. Somehow, Mama or Papa or both always knew and came to join him until he fell asleep.

Mama and Papa aren’t here now, and they won’t be joining him. So much has changed. He’s changed. He can feel it in the way his core hums with power he doesn’t know how to harness, in the way he feels the weight of an entire world on his shoulders, in the way he can’t tell his sister because he’s dug himself deep into a lie he doesn’t know how to begin to unravel. He wraps his arms around his legs and pulls them to his chest, staring up at the simulated stars. He traces them with his eyes. The Viper – a representation of the serpent once believed to encircle their neighbouring planet, before science advanced far enough for people to know otherwise. The Martyr – Satros, the mythical hero who gave his life to save his closest friend and was then immortalised in the stars. The Protectors – mythical twins who were said to have used their life cores to shield their town from a cataclysmic volcanic eruption. The Runaway – the boy who left home to explore and never returned; they say he died a hero trying to protect a planet that wasn’t his own.

Krel’s jarred from his thoughts at the sound of footsteps. He looks towards the door, expecting Aja or a doctor here to scold him. Instead, Seamus hovers in the doorframe, as if unsure if he’s welcome.

“You can come in,” Krel says.

He makes his way over and sits carefully beside Krel. When Krel doesn’t say anything against it, he shifts closer. Krel returns his attention to the constellations, glittering in the replica night sky.

“You know,” says Seamus, “when I was a kid, my mom used to take me up to the roof to practice magic while my dad was asleep. It was always little things. Spells to make cool-looking sparkles or something like that. We’ll still go up there, sometimes, when she notices I’m feeling down.”

Krel glances over at him. Seamus is watching him with an unreadable expression, something soft and worried that Krel can’t place, maybe because he’s never had friends to be worried about him before.

“I think, if she died, I’d probably go back to the roof on my own,” he says. “To feel closer to her.”

That’s a little too accurate for comfort. Krel looks away, staring determinedly at a particularly star-filled spot. Seamus just waits patiently. Krel sighs and draws his legs closer to his body.

“Aja and I used to come here with Mama and Papa,” he says. “Or whenever I was worried or sad… Mama would tell me stories about the constellations, all the histories and mythologies of our past. Or Papa would just make constellations up and we’d create stories for them together. I – I miss them.”

“I’m – sorry, about your parents,” Seamus says. “I think they’d be very proud of you today.”

Krel’s eyes water, and he raises a hand to wipe away the offending liquid. Would they be proud of him? Lying to Aja? Staying on Earth? Seamus puts a hand on his shoulder.

“I think they knew,” Krel finally admits. “That I was – different. Gaylen’s heir, I mean. They told us the story so many times, and we always got bored or fell asleep – but Papa always got onto _me_ the hardest. It was never Aja. I – I used to think – that he just liked her more. Now I wonder.”

“Maybe they did,” says Seamus. “Would it change anything if they knew you were Gaylen’s heir?”

“I – I don’t know,” Krel mumbles. “They could have told me. Given me some sort of explanation on why I was always different from everyone else. Do you think – do you think it’s why none of my peers liked me? Could they sense it, somehow?”

Seamus’s eyes widen minutely – if Krel wasn’t paying attention, he wouldn’t have noticed – and he shakes his head. “If none of you peers here liked you, they’re just stupid. You’re awesome, Krel. Just because they couldn’t see it doesn’t mean it isn’t true.”

Krel swallows and rapidly blinks back more forming tears, but it’s no use. After a half a moment’s hesitation, Seamus pulls him into a hug. Krel appreciates his friend for not judging him. Some part of him just wants to go home. He doesn’t know what he even means by that.

“Different isn’t a bad thing,” Seamus mumbles to him. “You’re going to save the world. I think that’s pretty special.”

“I don’t know how to save the world,” Krel manages. “I don’t know what I’m doing.”

“We’ll figure it out together,” Seamus promises. “All of us. You’re not alone in this, Krel. You’ve got your friends. We’ll always be here for you.”

They hold the hug a few seconds longer before pulling away. Krel uses his sleeve to rub away the tears on his cheeks. Seamus nods up at the stars still floating above them.

“Tell me about your constellations,” he says. “When we get back to Earth, I’ll have to show you some of ours, but for now, I want to learn about the ones you grew up with.”

Krel laughs wetly and shifts to a more comfortable sitting position. They spend the rest of the night looking at stars, Krel pointing out constellations and occasionally adding fake ones to throw his friend off, until Krel’s tears have dried and there’s nothing left but laughter.


	15. The Ancient Knowledge of Akiridion-5

“Gaylen’s core? What do you need to know about that?”

Yeah. Talking Aja into getting them information about Gaylen’s core and the weird nursery rhyme is going great so far. The library yesterday had been an almost instant bust. None of them can read Akiridion, and none of them had thought of that until they got to the library. Krel translated some through the video call, but that was slow-going and annoying, so they decided to wait until Krel was free from the hospital or whatever and they could look together. They also decided to pre-emptively ask for information from the Galactic Scholars. Steve doesn’t know why Krel doesn’t just ask himself, but there must be a reason.

“It’s for a school project,” Krel says. He’s a terrible liar, so Steve butts in to back him up.

“Summer work for Señor Uhl’s class, and you know how he can be.” He offers her a charming grin, or what he hopes is a charming grin. “We’re supposed to make a presentation about something important about our heritage.”

“And what’s more important than the creator of Akiridion-5, am I right?” Toby adds. “I’m personally doing something on World War I. My nana was a spy. Pretty cool, huh?”

“Dude, how old is your nana?” Seamus hisses.

Toby shrugs. “It’s rude to ask a lady her age.”

“And I’m doing something on, uh, Georgia,” Steve says. Maybe he’s also a bad liar. “Because my mom’s from Georgia. Uh. Peaches?”

“Come on, Aja, please,” Krel says. “You know they’ll listen to you more than me.”

Steve is tempted to ask about that, but he also thinks it might be, like, sad backstory, which sucks but he really doesn’t have the emotional ability to deal with that right now. He is far too stressed. He'll ask later.

“And the nursery rhyme?” Aja says sceptically.

“We think it’s connected,” says Toby. “Celestial core, Gaylen’s core… seems about right.”

Aja frowns at them. She’s still not happy with Krel or Steve for the argument yesterday. “You’ll stay until the information gets here at least?”

“Yes, we’ll stay,” Krel says, rolling his eyes. “Only until the information gets here and we can look through it. Then we have to get back. To – work on the project.”

“Alright,” she says. “I’ll get you the information. It will take time.”

“Hey, maybe we can show you around in the meantime,” Eli pipes in, smiling widely and adjusting his glasses. It’s still super weird to see Eli in Akiridion clothes. They suit him, sure, but it’s really flipping weird. “Akiridion-5 is so cool! You guys will love it!”

Krel gives them a weird look. “I guess I wasn’t out long if you haven’t looked around yet.”

“Oh, no,” says Toby. “You were out for like three days, dude, we just stuck by you because we’re loyal friends and you scared the crap out of us.”

“Three _days_!?” Krel repeats. “Ay-yi-yi, then we really can’t stay long.”

“You still have plenty of time to complete your project,” says Aja suspiciously.

“Not really,” says Steve. “School starts next Wednesday according to Dad.”

“Next _what_!?” Seamus exclaims.

“Oh, we’re screwed,” says Toby. “We’re so screwed. Might as well prepare our funerals now.”

“You waited this long to get information for your summer project?” Aja says.

“Hey, why didn’t we know about this?” Eli asks.

“Uh,” says Steve.

“It was… a… last-minute addition,” says Krel. “It’s actually due… the second week of school. So we have time.”

Aja and Eli both look doubtful now, which is not good. Seamus throws an arm over Krel’s shoulder, then one over Steve’s. He gives Aja and Eli his brightest grin and says, “We’d love to have a look around now. It’s crazy to be on a different planet!”

“It is!” Eli chirps in agreement. Steve mentally thanks his friend for the intervention. “You guys will love it.”

“I suppose we can show you around,” says Aja. Her excitement is slowly bleeding back into her expression. “Come on! There’s so much to show you!”

“Great,” mutters Krel. He follows the rest of them unenthusiastically, dodging Steve’s concerned glance with practised ease. Steve tries to signal to Toby and Seamus to talk to him, but Aja starts dragging him away before he can.

They really haven’t explored at all since getting to Akiridion-5. Steve’s seen the hospital place – med-wing, Aja called it – and the hallways between it and the guest rooms, and, obviously, the guest rooms, but that’s about it. He has to admit it’ll be nice to see the place his girlfriend and friend grew up. He knows Seamus and Toby are mostly excited because, well, they’re on another planet. And yes. That is very cool.

“I’ll show you the training arena first,” says Aja. “Krel! Do you remember our first lessons in fighting?”

“Ugh, don’t remind me,” groans Krel. “I got pummelled.”

“You didn’t do that badly. You still came to, what, ten more lessons?”

“Three. I only went to three more.”

“I feel like maybe you should have gone to a few more,” says Toby. At this point, it’s kind of irrelevant. They’ve all had enough lessons from Nimue and Ikram that they can all hold their own on the battlefield, and Steve thinks he’s learned enough already from Mort that even injured, he can protect his friends.

“How are things on Earth?” asks Eli. He and Aja have both been avoiding the subject while Krel was out. Eli mostly filled Steve in on his time on Akiridion-5 – he’s been loving it, and Steve is glad for him.

“Uh,” says Seamus. “Earth’s good. Arcadia’s pretty much… casually pretending they’ve always known about extra-terrestrials and the Morando thing didn’t happen.”

“We got jobs,” says Toby. “At that magic shop? It’s really cool. Krel and I help out a lot up front, Steve does a lot of helping Mort – the owner, you met him – preparing stuff to sell.”

It’s not fully a lie. Steve does occasionally help make potions to sell, and Krel and Toby do help up front when they aren’t training.

“You got a job, little brother?” Aja’s tone is coloured with shock. “You didn’t mention that yesterday.”

“Oh, it, uh, slipped my mind,” Krel says, followed by an uneasy laugh.

“Steve,” says Aja, “you never told us what happened to your leg. What is the colourful plaster? And why do you have those aids?”

“Yeah, Steve,” says Eli, because of course both of them focus in on the one subject Steve wanted to avoid, “how did you manage to break your leg?”

Aja gasps, eyes widening. “His leg is _broken_!? Human legs can _break_? How do you fix it?”

“Uh, the colourful plaster helps,” says Steve. “I… fell. Down the stairs. I – wasn’t paying attention?”

“It was funny until we figured out he was hurt,” Krel pitches in helpfully.

Aja turns accusingly to Eli. “If I had known you could break limbs, I would not have let you try hover-racing.”

“I didn’t break anything! It was fine!” Eli protests.

“You did _what_, Pepperjack!?” Steve exclaims.

“It was fine!”

Krel laughs. “Good job, Eli. Hover-racing is dangerous.”

The hall Aja leads them into is bigger and more spacious than the ones they’d been using. Akiridions mull about, offering cordial greetings. Steve doesn’t miss the way their eyes linger on the humans of the group and Krel, who looks uncomfortable in his own home. Steve knows there’s a reason Krel stayed on Earth, and maybe this is part of it.

“You know, Krel, you should show them your lab while we’re walking around,” says Aja. “Earth doesn’t have anything like it.”

Steve hopes that’s not Aja’s attempt at subtly swaying Krel to stay. He knows it won’t work – at the very least, he knows Krel well enough to know he’ll stick around at least until apocalypse number three is prevented – but he doesn’t like that Aja’s still trying to convince him. She means well. He gets that.

“Earth has some pretty cool stuff,” says Krel. He’s talking about magic, and all of _them_ know he’s talking about magic, but Aja and Eli don’t, so Steve tries to think of something to support that when Earth pales in comparison to Akiridion-5 in the science and tech department.

“What other planet are you gonna get, uh, genuine Earth music?” Toby says.

“Exactly,” says Krel. “You don’t have anything like it on Akiridion-5.”

Aja’s lips twist into a frown when he says “you” instead of “we”. Even Steve can see the way he’s separated himself with that. She plasters a much faker smile back on. “You know, the people here all really loved your demo tape, little brother!”

“Maybe I will send you copies of the next one I make,” Krel says.

Before this can turn into yet another fight, Steve butts in, “Hey! So where’s that training arena? You know, a couple of our new friends have been giving us fighting lessons. Maybe Krel can show you.”

Krel turns to him with panicked eyes and shakes his head. Steve nods back at him. At the very least, this will show Aja that Krel can sort of protect himself. Toby picks up on this and smiles widely.

“Yeah, me and Krel can spar for you!” he says.

Aja looks even more suspicious, which wasn’t his intention. “Why do you need fighting lessons?”

“She’s very insistent,” says Krel. “It was less her offering to teach us to fight and more her dragging us to the gym and forcing us to learn.”

“Apparently, everyone needs to know at least a little bit how to defend themselves,” says Steve. “Also she’s kind of scary. So. There’s no saying no.”

Steve does not like keeping this secret. Aja isn’t stupid, and she clearly knows something is going on that they aren’t telling her. At this point, though, they’re in too deep to tell her without her getting super angry, and Steve does _not_ want to deal with a super angry Aja right now. They’ll need to tell her eventually, but for now, he’s going to avoid it.

“I’m surprised she could get you to go to more than one lesson, scary or not,” says Aja.

“I was being very literal with the dragging thing,” Krel says flatly.

“He really was,” Toby adds.

“Oh, come on, Ikram doesn’t _drag_ you,” Seamus scoffs.

“_Now_, because we’ve learned not to avoid it,” Krel says. “At the beginning? All the time. Most of the time. She’s scary.”

Aja places a hand on a glowing pad, and Steve jumps back on his crutches as part of the wall – that he now recognises is a door – opens to reveal a high-ceilinged, largely empty room. There are markings on the floor that probably mean something, and several platforms that Steve guesses are for spectators on the walls, but otherwise, the room seems pretty plain.

“I do want to see this, if you’ve been learning how to fight,” says Aja. Her brow furrows. “Are you sure you feel up to it?”

“I’m _fine_, Aja,” insists Krel.

“If you insist.” She activates her serrator-sword at her side with a smirk. “Then let’s spar.”

Krel’s eyes widen. “Wait. I thought I was sparring Toby.”

“Nope,” says Aja. “I want to see how much you’ve learned. Scared, little brother?”

“Yes,” Krel says. “I never said I was any good!”

“Come on,” Aja goads. “It’s just a spar. I’ll even go easy on you.”

“Ay-yi-yi,” mumbles Krel, shooting Steve a death glare. Yeah. This is Steve’s fault. Krel walks out to the middle of the room, and Aja does as well, several feet from her brother. Krel activates his own serrator-sword.

“I can ref,” Seamus offers.

“We won’t need one,” Aja says smugly. “This will be quick.”

Krel’s eyes narrow. He’s visibly offended, and Steve sees him adjust his stance to the more proper one Ikram taught them. Oh, yeah. He’s not going to make this easy for Aja. He’s gonna lose, but he’s also going to prove her wrong. Steve is already proud of him for it.

“Suit yourself,” says Seamus, who is also well aware that Krel’s actually gotten decent at fighting.

Aja makes the first move, darting towards Krel. Krel follows her movements with his eyes, then somersaults out to the way and grins as he pops back up. Toby cheers. Aja frowns, then charges again. This time, Krel raises his sword to parry her attack. Her eyes widen. Krel grins. He’s caught her sword exactly as taught, so Steve knows what’s coming next. He uses his own blade to twist hers out of her grip, then kicks it across the floor. He holds his serrator up towards her core.

“Really quick, isn’t it, Aja?” Krel taunts. “Dead.”

“Did he just… beat Aja?” Toby asks quietly.

“I think he did,” Steve mutters in amazement.

Krel glances at them, then at Aja, then it apparently dawns on him that, yes, he just beat Aja, and his face lights up like it’s Christmas Day. “I did it! Ha-ha! I actually did it!”

“How did you – I don’t – what?” Aja stammers.

Seamus pumps his fists in the air. He runs out to Krel to pat him on the back like he does Steve after a good game of football. “Alright, Krel!”

“Yeah, DJ Kleb!” Toby cheers, also jogging to join them on the field. Steve crutches after them and gives Krel his own pat on the back for the unexpected win. Krel looks thrilled, grin wide enough that it must hurt, eyes sparkling in a way Steve hasn’t seen since he woke up on Akiridion-5.

“Beginner’s luck,” Aja says. “I underestimated you.”

“I still won,” says Krel with another laugh. “Against you! I won against you!”

“You won’t next time,” she says. Her expression softens and she puts a hand on his shoulder. “I’m proud of you, little brother. You did good.”

Krel’s own wide beam softens into a smile. “Thanks, Aja. It means a lot coming from you.”

Aja pulls him into a hug. Steve hopes it means she isn’t angry anymore, or, at least, she won’t express her anger anymore. At the very least, she now has proof he won’t, like, die the minute the get back to Earth.

“Come on, there’s still so much to see,” Eli exclaims. “This place is so big! It’s crazy.”

“Yes, come on!” Aja chirps. “I want to show you the throne room!”

She and Eli bound towards the door. Steve smiles fondly at his girlfriend and friend’s enthusiasm. He’s really missed them both. He understands both of their reasons for leaving, but it still sucks. Eli’s one of his best friends, and Aja – well, Steve’s never met anyone quite like Aja. Once this whole apocalypse thing is over, he’ll definitely visit more often. It’ll be easier, then, when he isn’t worried about his friends and the Knights and the evil wizard. He looks forward to it.

The rest of the tour goes well. Akiridion-5 is beautiful, and it looks straight out of a sci-fi world, so of course Seamus ends up being the most enthusiastic about everything throughout the tour. Krel seems amused by this. Steve saw it coming, honestly. He’s known Seamus for years and if there’s one thing he’s always been passionate about, it’s outer space. Toby probably comes in second for excitement, by a slim margin.

Dinner is also super weird, because it’s Akiridion food that humans can eat, which is vastly different from human food. It doesn’t taste bad, but it’s definitely unfamiliar and Steve isn’t entirely sure how to describe it. After dinner, Aja offers to show them around the city some, but Krel claims he’s kind of tired, so ultimately, they decide to do that another day.

It’s probably the middle of the night when Steve’s woken up by his phone buzzing. He checks it, pausing to glare at the time in annoyance, then opens Krel’s text telling him meet in his lab. On the one hand, Steve would rather not, but on the other hand, he doesn’t trust Krel not to do something stupid, so he climbs out of bed. He doesn’t bother changing out pyjamas. That’s way too much effort.

As expected, Krel, Toby, and Seamus are all already there when Steve manages to crutch his way over. Krel waves at him as he hobbles in. “Sorry to wake you. I was going to do some tests, and I figured you might want in.”

“What kind of tests?” says Steve suspiciously. He takes a moment to sit down in an available chair and make himself comfortable. “Better not be anything dangerous.”

“Relax, it’s harmless,” says Krel. He shrugs some sort of glowing vest-like thing over his head. “Seamus, can you fasten it?”

“What is this thing?” Toby asks, poking the front of it and frowning as Seamus tightens the straps in the back.

“It’s for measuring core output and fluctuations,” Krel says. “I had to nab it from the med-wing when they weren’t looking. It’s usually used when they think someone has a core disease, to see if the energy output is unusual or weak. I’m going to be checking for the opposite.”

“They had something like this they used on you,” says Seamus.

“Probably a newer model,” says Krel. “This one will serve our purposes just fine.”

Graphs and numbers – or what Steve assumes are numbers – pop up on screen. Krel’s fingers fly across the screen, moving things around and scrolling through menus and Akiridion letters, until the screens blink and show up in English, most likely for their benefit more than anything else. He navigates back to the graphs.

“Is that… good or bad?” Toby asks.

Krel purses his lips. “Well. Here’s what a normal Akiridion core’s output graph looks like.”

It doesn’t answer the question, but it does give clear evidence that merging with Gaylen’s core has messed with Krel’s core. The line that represents Krel is way above the line that represents the average. Both look kind of like heartbeats, actually, which Steve thinks is neat. Maybe Akiridions aren’t totally different from humans after all. Except that they still don’t have pulses, which, by the way, Steve nearly had an actual heart attack the first time he noticed that.

“Can you add in the data we got from Gaylen’s core?” Seamus asks.

“One second,” says Krel. A few swipes and hand waves later, and a third line is added to the graph, above even Krel’s data. Seamus nods like it’s proven a theory, and points to two distinct dips in both the Krel and Gaylen lines that aren’t in the other.

“You have more of these than the average,” he says. Steve can see that. He doesn’t know what it means, but he can see it. “And you’re a lot closer to the Gaylen line than the average. I’d say your core is more – whatever Gaylen’s is than Akiridion.”

“God?” says Toby. Krel scrunches his nose, obviously not happy with that idea. “I mean, didn’t Stuart say Gaylen’s core had the latent power of a god?”

“Does this mean I can start saying ‘oh my Krel’, because that would be hilarious,” says Seamus.

Krel shoves him. “Oh, shut up. Gaylen was a Celestial. His core was made out of a different material, even.”

“Yeah, and yours is acting a lot more like his than like this average Akiridion core,” Seamus points out. He watches Krel’s face worriedly as he speaks “Like it or not, I don’t think you’re quite… Akiridion anymore.”

Krel’s brow furrows, like he isn’t sure what to make of this. Steve isn’t even sure what to make of that. Toby crosses his arms. “I told you it was a bad idea, but you didn’t want to listen.”

“I’m still – it’s not the same as Jim,” says Krel. “So far, there’s not any _real_ negatives.”

“So far,” Steve cuts in. “We don’t know that there won’t be. What if all this energy is really bad for you?”

Krel inclines his head. “Fair. Okay, well, I’m not a medical professional so I actually don’t know if this is good or bad.”

“It’s cool,” Seamus offers.

“Yeah,” Krel agrees. “We’ll go with that.”

“That’s great and all, but _cool_ doesn’t tell us whether this will, like, kill you,” Toby says.

“No, I suppose not,” says Krel.

Toby sighs. Steve has just given up. He’s pretty sure Krel’s always been like this and he’s also pretty sure Krel’s never going to change. Either Gaylen’s core will kill him or it won’t, and honestly, Steve doubts it will kill him. Other negative side effects he’s not so sure about.

“Okay, onto more tests,” says Krel. “I’m going to try using my new powers and see if that affects the data.”

“Um, shouldn’t we wait to experiment with your new powers?” Steve asks. “You know, just in case using them makes you go crazy evil bananas?”

“Why would I turn into a banana?” Krel scoffs.

“He just means crazy,” says Seamus.

“Oh.” Krel shrugs and adjusts the vest-thing. “I’m sure it will be fine. I won’t do too much. Just the weapons, maybe.”

“I’m gonna get away from the blast zone,” says Toby. He helpfully grabs Steve’s chair and drags him backwards as well before they both give Krel and Seamus, who apparently thinks Krel won’t accidentally shoot him, grins and thumbs-up.

“Alright, test one,” says Krel. “Sword.”

He holds out a hand. A few seconds later, a glowing white sword materialises in it. Steve has to admit it’s pretty cool. Mort hasn’t taught him how to make magic weapons yet, although he imagines it works like most other magic does – concentration and intent.

The data on the graph spikes briefly, then returns to normal. Or, well, what’s apparently Krel’s new normal.

“That was anticlimactic,” Krel mumbles. “Test two. Blaster.”

Like the sword, the data spikes again. Krel frowns, then fires two test shots – away from Toby and Steve, thankfully – at a nearby wall. The data spikes with each shot before returning to normal.

“That is not at all how I thought this would work,” he admits.

“It’s kinda weird,” says Seamus. “I figured you’d have more energy output the whole time the weapons were formed.”

“That’s what I thought,” says Krel.

“How did I not know Seamus is a nerd?” Toby mutters to Steve as the other two continue chattering about hypotheses or whatever.

Steve snorts. “I think you thought he couldn’t be because he hung out with me. Trust me, Seamus is a huge nerd.”

“Yeah, I can definitely see it now,” says Toby.

It seems like Krel’s probably done trying to blow stuff up, so Toby and Steve make their way closer. Well, Toby pushes Steve’s chair closer, which is kind of embarrassing if Steve’s honest. None of them have made a big deal about his injury, though, so that’s nice.

“Are you ever gonna tell Aja?” Steve asks Krel.

His face falls. “I guess I’ll have to eventually. I don’t think I can keep this from her forever if I tried.”

“And the end of the world stuff?” prompts Toby.

Krel winces. “When it’s over?”

That’s kind of what Steve expected him to say. He also strongly disagrees. Aja and Akiridion-5 could be a huge help to them if it comes to some sort of final battle. Steve imagines the evil wizard is super strong, probably stronger than Morando, and they’ll need all the help they can get.

“I wonder if I can make myself giant like Morando,” muses Krel.

“Let’s maybe not try that in here,” says Toby.

Krel glances up at ceiling, still high but not that high, and nods. “Maybe not.”

Steve yawns and shakes his head. “Are there more tests you want to run or can we go back to bed? You slept for like three days. We didn’t.”

“You can go back to bed,” says Krel. At Steve and Toby’s glares, he smiles innocently. “I won’t do anything dangerous!”

“I’ll supervise,” says Seamus. “I lived through Mort’s disapproval to have him bring me a bunch of energy drinks, I’ll be good.”

“What’s an energy drink?” asks Krel, face lighting up with curiosity.

“Do not give him an energy drink,” Toby warns. Steve nods in agreement. He really can’t see _that_ ending well. He does sort of trust Seamus to keep Krel in line, so he and Toby leave. He doesn’t understand the science stuff, anyway.

“Think either of them will sleep at all tonight?” he asks as they walk back to their rooms.

Toby shakes his head. “Not a wink.”

By midday, the info they’d asked for has arrived from the Galactic Scholars. At first, Steve thinks it’s not a lot, because it’s on this little tiny device, but the minute they camp out in an empty room, Krel activates the device and there’s information everywhere. It takes Krel a little bit of time to get it all translated into English – apparently some of the texts are in an old dialect of Akiridion he doesn’t even speak and they aren’t scanned properly – but once he does, they set to researching with vigour.

Steve’s seeing a lot of stuff they already know about Gaylen’s core. The history of Seklos and Gaylen. Latent powers of a god. Created Akiridion-5. Hey, can Krel create planets now? That would actually be super cool. Can Krel make them a vacation planet? Like a private island but a private _planet_. That would be awesome.

He thinks it’s going well, until about a half an hour in, Aja and Eli join them.

“How’s the project going, little brother?” Aja asks as she plops down next to Krel. He startles and accidentally sends screens of information flying away from him. “Found anything useful?”

“Uh, not really, yet,” says Krel stiffly. “What are you doing here?”

“We thought we could help out,” Eli says brightly. “It should go even faster with six of us!”

Krel meets Steve’s eyes pleadingly, as if Steve can get them to go away. There’s no good excuse to send them away. He can’t think of a single good excuse. Usually he’s great at excuses!

“So what exactly are you looking for?” asks Aja.

“Oh, uh, fun facts about Gaylen’s core,” says Toby. “Maybe more about his powers. Krel, didn’t you want to make a _simulation_ for class?”

“Yes! That’s right!” Krel agrees quickly. “But I need more details about what exactly he could do to do that.”

“Also what the nursery rhyme is about,” says Seamus. “Like, specifically.”

“As usual, Krel’s overdoing it with the project,” adds Steve.

“I am not,” Krel grumbles, although if this was a school project he totally would be.

“From what I know there isn’t a lot on Gaylen’s actual powers in detail,” says Aja. “You could base your simulation on what Morando could do?”

Krel shakes his head. “Morando didn’t have full access to all of Gaylen’s powers, only a few of them, and they were corrupted at best.”

Aja frowns at this. Eli’s eyebrows raise.

“What makes you think that?” he asks.

Krel’s eyes widen like a deer caught in the headlights. “I – guessed. Based on what we have read so far.”

“If he had the full powers of a _god_, he wouldn’t have been so easy to take down,” Toby says. Krel scowls at the word “easy" and Toby holds out his hands. “Not that it was easy. But if he was full god I think it would have been a longer fight.”

“Hm, maybe,” says Aja slowly. “Let’s see what we find.”

Aja and Eli’s presence instantly restricts them from discussing what they’re looking for in more specific terms unrelated to the fake-project. It definitely restricts their ability to look for stuff about Gaylen’s heir without drawing unwanted attention. Seamus, the farthest from either Eli or Aja, can maybe get away with it, so Steve hopes he’s trying.

Steve’s knee-deep in an article that he hopes will eventually start talking about Gaylen but hasn’t yet when Eli exclaims, “Hey! I found something!”

“Really? What is it?” Krel asks, leaning over his shoulder.

“It says the origin of the nursery rhyme is most likely referring to something called a formstone,” Eli says, eyes darting across the screen. “But it doesn’t say what a formstone is.”

“Narrow down the information to keyword formstone,” Krel says loudly. The screens all whirl until there are only nine or ten of them left. Krel swipes through them until he comes to a fairly dense paragraph. “A definition! That’s more like it.”

“What’s it say?” Toby asks.

“Formstones are the points from which planets are made,” Krel reads aloud. “Planets can have anywhere from one formstone to hundreds of them. It is believed the cores of the ancient celestials were carved from these. When destroyed, they destroy the planet in turn. Their powers can be harnessed, in moderation, but when too much is absorbed, the formstone crumbles along with its planet. It’s said that only celestials can sense and find hidden formstones.”

Seamus skims over another document. “Yikes. Look at this planet. Is this really what happens?”

Steve leans over his shoulder. The planet in question is shattered beyond repair. The level of destruction looks straight out of a sci-fi movie. Steve can barely believe that it’s a reality somewhere in the galaxy.

“Voltar,” he says aloud.

“That’s where I’ve heard that word before!” Aja realises. “Voltar! It was destroyed keltons ago – when all three of its formstones were shattered in a planetary war.”

“Cracks in stone apart get pulled, shattered world exists no more,” Eli recites. “That makes perfect sense! And you were right. It _is_ related to Gaylen.”

“Search Earth formstones,” Krel orders. This only yields up one document, and Steve decides to count them as lucky it yields up any at all. Krel reads some of this aloud, as well. “The great Gaylen is said to have originated on Earth. According to most research, Earth has a single formstone from which Gaylen’s core could have emerged.”

He looks up, eyes darting from Toby to Seamus and finally to Steve as they all reach the same conclusion – or, at least Steve imagines they all reach the same conclusion.

Earth’s formstone is in Arcadia, and the wizard wants to find it.


	16. Seeing Red

Aja tries to make them stay a day longer after they’ve found the formstone information, but at most she succeeds in making them wait until the next day to leave. They really need to get this to Mort, like ASAP, so they’re packed and ready to go as early as they can the next morning.

“You always have a place here, little brother.” Aja pulls her brother into a hug. She somehow looks sadder now than she did leaving him on Earth in the first place. “You know that, right?”

“I do,” says Krel. “And… I miss you, too, Aja. But Earth is my home. Not Akiridion-5. Not anymore.”

Aja pulls away and nods, lips pulled thin. “I – I know. I know. But – if anything happens, you need to come back. Okay?”

“Okay,” says Krel. Aja can clearly tell it’s a lie, because her face turns even sadder. Krel hugs her again, shorter this time, then walks to stand with Seamus and Toby by the wormhole.

“I’m going to come back and visit soon,” says Steve. Krel makes a gagging motion when Steve kisses Aja, and Seamus makes mocking gestures at the two of them. Toby thinks they’re kind of cute together.

“Take care of my little brother, my blond oaf,” she says. Krel dramatically rolls his eyes. Seamus mouths “blond oaf” in amused disbelief. “Maybe I’ll also come visit soon. Say hi to my friends on Earth.”

“Good luck with your project, guys!” Eli offers. “Let us know if we can help more!”

“We will!” Toby says. It’s not like they can help more with a non-existent project. He has no idea what else they could have told Aja and Eli besides that specific lie, so he’s glad Krel thought it up.

The wormhole opens in front of Krel’s house. To be safe, they dart straight inside, just in case BK or a new Knight is hanging around, and Steve pulls out his phone to call Mort to pick them up.

“Krel! Looks like you’re feeling better!” Ricky – Mr. Blank? – exclaims, running forward and picking Krel up in a tight hug. Krel yelps. Lucy joins in a group hug, grinning in wide, creepy, Lucy fashion.

“How was your trip, kiddo?” she asks loudly.

Krel winces. “Fine, fine, put me down.”

“You kids want breakfast?” Lucy offers. She and Lucy deposit Krel back on his feet. He shakes out his arms and winces.

“Breakfast does sound nice,” Toby admits. He does love Lucy’s pancakes. Even off the ceiling they taste good.

“I don’t think we have time,” says Steve, pocketing his phone again. “Mort’s on his way. It won’t take him long.”

“That’s too bad,” says Lucy.

“What’s the plan for today, kiddos?” Ricky asks with more enthusiasm than Toby once would have thought possible from a robot. “Just a guys’ day?”

“Yeah, something like that,” says Seamus. He still seems kind of uneasy with the Blanks, but Toby understands. They’re a lot to get used to, and he and Steve have had much more time to get used to them.

True to Steve’s word, Mort arrives fairly quickly. They’d messaged him the night before so he’d probably been waiting nearby just in case they showed up here. It’s a bit of a tight fit to pile all four of them into his truck, but they manage. Krel, the smallest and skinniest of all of them, is stuck in the middle seat between Toby and Seamus. Steve gets shotgun simply because of his leg.

“Krel, how are you?” Mort asks. “Adjusting alright?”

“I think so,” says Krel. “It feels kind of weird. I have more energy now than I know what to do with.”

“Well, it could be worse,” says Mort. Toby mentally shudders. It could be much worse. He doesn’t like to think of the moment when Krel collapsed, when none of them knew what was happening or if he was going to be okay. He especially didn’t like to think of how the Akiridion doctors had near panicked, and how for a few hours none of them were sure if Krel was even still alive.

“We think we know what the evil wizard is after,” says Steve. “So, Krel talked to Gaylen–”

“Sorry, sorry, Krel talked to _Gaylen_?” Mort repeats, glancing at Krel in the rear-view mirror. “Gaylen, the dead space god? Does anyone else see what’s wrong with this picture?”

“Yeah, we know,” says Krel. “He gave me a riddle because he’s no help.”

“Well, anyway, we figured out the riddle,” says Steve. “Have you ever heard of formstones?”

Toby sees Mort’s eyes widen in the mirror. “Heard of, yes. But only as a myth. And it doesn’t make any sense according to science.”

“Well, science is going to have to be thrown out the window for this,” says Seamus. He grimaces. “And that physically hurt me to say.”

“It physically hurt me to hear,” agrees Krel.

“You break the laws of physics like they’re piñatas, don’t give me that,” Seamus retorts.

“Piñata? What’s a piñata?”

“So you think these formstones are real, then?” Mort says.

“Yeah,” says Steve. “Earth only has one, and we think it’s in Arcadia.”

Mort sighs heavily. “I hate to say it, but I think you may be correct. It would explain… a lot. The magical power of the town. Trollmarket.”

“This apocalypse,” Toby adds. “We think the wizard wants to drain its powers.”

“That would be very, very bad,” Mort says. “But it makes sense. It at least explains why he wants Krel, if he has any suspicion about Krel and Gaylen’s core.”

“Only celestials can find hidden formstones,” Krel murmurs. His brow lowers. “Then I played right into his hands. I shouldn’t have integrated with Gaylen’s core, after all. Then he’d never find it.”

Mort shakes his head. “Gaylen’s powers may still be essential. Sometimes, we have to play into the enemy’s hands to gain our own advantage. No action comes without some form of consequence.”

“How did Mordred–” Mort gives Seamus a deadpan glare in the rear-view mirror. “–sorry, fine, the evil wizard – how did he know about Krel and Gaylen’s core?”

Mort’s lips twist into a deep frown. “To be totally honest, even I suspected something of the like from the moment I met Krel. I told you your aura was… unearthly, but it’s more than that. Any wizard worth his salt would recognise _something_ off about you.”

“I thought it was just because he’s Akiridion,” Steve says slowly.

“Did you look at any auras on Akiridion-5?” Mort prompts.

“I – well, yeah, but of course Krel’s was different by then,” Steve reasons. He shakes his head. “But… it’s always been similar to Gaylen’s core. You’re right.”

“I have no doubt our mystery wizard would be able to see auras,” says Mort. “It would be easy to make an educated guess.”

Krel turns his amulet-device-thing – yeah, Toby’s gonna call it an amulet – over in his hands, staring at it with a worried frown. Toby knows the idea that he’s always been… different… makes Krel pretty uncomfortable. He puts a hand on one of his friend’s arms.

“Hey,” he says, “doesn’t change anything. So you’re aura’s wonky. We’re all weird. You being weird too just means you fit in perfectly.”

Krel offers him a weak smile. “Yeah. I guess.”

Mort parks in front of his shop and ushers them all inside. Steve groans when he opens the trapdoor to the library. Toby sympathises, he really does. Mort grins at the younger blond.

“Watch this,” he says. He pushes his hands out like he’s splashing someone at the pool, and a bronze platform appears over the stairs. “Been working on this since you’ve been gone. We may not have a lift but this will do. Hop on.”

Steve eyes the platform warily but crutches onto it anyway. Mort walks forward, hands still out, and the platform lowers down the stairs as he walks. Toby glances at his friends.

“Mort realises he could have just gotten, like, a wheelchair lift or something, right?” he says.

“I mean, adult wizards can be kind of weird,” says Seamus. “My mom would rather do things with magic if she can help it. Says it saves money.”

“Adults in general are weird,” mutters Krel.

The three of them follow down the stairs. Douxie, Nimue, and Ikram are all also gathered in the library. It’s tight, but they all fit. Douxie grins at them. “Good to see you’re all okay.”

“Mort told us what happened,” says Ikram. Nimue stalks over specifically so she can whack Krel in the back of the head. Toby isn’t sure if the slap if from her or Ikram or both, but the sentiment is received either way.

“Ow,” Krel complains.

“You are entirely too reckless,” ikram chides. “It’s not a good trait. Unlearn it.”

“Hey, my ‘recklessness’ might have gotten us an advantage,” Krel protests. “With Gaylen’s powers, I bet the Knights won’t stand a chance.”

By her expression, Ikram takes this as a personal challenge. “Alright, then. Spar me with your new powers, little Akiridion.”

Krel’s eyes widen. “Uh. No, thank you.”

“Actually, I think that’s a wonderful idea,” Mort says. “It would give us a nice idea on how your new powers will affect combat and what advantage we might have.”

Krel groans. Toby doesn’t really feel bad. He dug himself into this particular hole. He can spar his way out of it. The group of them walk over to their usual training room at Nimue’s. All but Krel and Ikram sit. Toby wishes he had popcorn. Krel stands on one side and holds up his amulet.

“What is that?” says Douxie, leaning forward with his hands on his thighs.

“Super awesome-sauce,” Toby says smugly. That’s right. He may not get a cool armour transformation, but two of his friends do.

“In the name of Gaylen!” Krel shouts. He’s obviously trying to look cool, and as the armour flies on, Toby has to admit that it works. Krel materialises a sword as he lands on his feet. A second later, the helmet also appears. Yeah, he’ll probably need that.

“Impressive,” says Ikram. She brandishes her own sword. “But showy transformations don’t say anything about your actual skill.”

“Don’t worry, Krel!” Seamus calls. “We’ll come to your funeral!”

Krel turns back to them with an offended glare. “Have a little faith in me! I thought you said I was special!”

Steve chokes on a laugh.

“Dude,” he mutters to Seamus.

“Shut up,” Seamus mutters back.

Krel returns his attention to Ikram and the spar begins. At first, Krel sticks to his sword. It seems like it’s a familiar weapon for him, so, hey, he should work with what he knows. Then the sword disappears on him. By his panicked face, that was not purposeful. He tries to re-materialise it. This fails, so he tries for the gun, or so Toby assumes. This also fails, so he just throws out his hands and manages to send poorly aimed energy charges in Ikram’s general direction. They all miss.

“This is going well,” Steve notes sarcastically.

“Work! Stupid! Sword!” Krel cries desperately as Ikram approaches. She’s grinning like this is the most fun she’s had in years. It might be. When she gets closer, Krel tries to jump out of the way. He jumps. He does not hit the ground. He shrieks and kicks at empty air.

“You’re flying!” Seamus exclaims in shock.

Toby hops to his feet excitedly. “Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, Krel can fly! Krel can _fly_!”

“I don’t want to fly!” Krel wails. He tries and fails to navigate, until finally some extremely dumb part of him seems to think that jumping in mid-air will get him down. Instead, he shoots straight upward – and through the ceiling.

“Oh, no,” mumbles Nimue in horror. Krel’s lower half dangles from the newly-formed hole, legs still kicking urgently for solid ground. Toby’s glad he has the helmet, because otherwise he bets the Akiridion would _definitely_ be unconscious.

“Well,” Ikram calls, “we learned you can fly. And you can’t fight. Still.”

“Yep,” Krel’s muffled voice replies. “Great. Can – someone get me down?”

Yeah. Toby wishes he’d had popcorn for that.

After they get Krel down from the ceiling, Mort orders pizza – he gets himself the blasphemous pineapple pizza much to Toby’s horror – and they all gather upstairs to eat. It’s kind of clear Mort wants to keep showing off his new spell. Steve humours him, so the rest of them do, too. Krel turns on his transduction. In some weird way, he looks refreshed to be back in human form. He keeps pushing the skin on his cheeks and arms around when he thinks the rest of them aren’t looking. If Toby didn’t know he didn’t usually have a human body, he’d find this really, really strange, but since he does know, it’s kind of funny.

“So how’s Akiridion-5?” asks Douxie. He pauses. “Five is the right number, right?”

Krel laughs. “Yes, it’s the right number. And it’s fine. Aja’s doing a good job.”

“Is there more than one Akiridion?” Nimue asks.

“Sort of,” says Krel. “Akiridions used to be a nomadic race. We aren’t anymore, we’ve pretty much stuck to Akiridion-5. And me, here, I guess. But before that, thousands of years ago, we would kind of roam the galaxy for years until we found a planet to live on for a while. Up until Gaylen created Akiridion-5, though, none of the planets sustained our way of life for longer than a few centuries.”

“So, what, there were four before Gaylen made Akiridion-5?” Toby asks.

“Yeah, and Akiridion Prime, which is where Akiridions originally came from.” Krel pauses to take a bite of his pizza. He swallows, and continues speaking. “At least, that’s what I remember learning. It’s been a while.”

“You know, I’ve been wondering,” says Toby. “Do you think _you_ could make a planet?”

Krel blinks. “I never thought of that.”

“That sounds like the worst possible idea,” says Ikram.

“I think it’d be pretty cool,” Steve says.

“I bet you could,” says Seamus. “But you’d have to do a lot of research on where to put it so it’s habitable _and_ you don’t mess up an entire solar system.”

“Gaylen didn’t _create_ Akiridions, did he?” Toby asks. He’s been kind of wondering about that and the implications it might come with.

“Oh, no, no,” says Krel. He’s gotten good at reading Toby’s expressions, because he tacks on, “And before you ask, I’m not even going to think about trying something like _that_.”

“I would hate to see the result of that,” mutters Mort.

“We don’t actually know how Akiridions first formed,” admits Krel. “There are theories but we don’t have good evidence. Akiridion Prime was destroyed long before anyone knew real science stuff.”

It’s kind of nice to know that even Akiridions once didn’t know anything about science. They’re so far ahead of humans that it’s intimidating, but even they started somewhere. From a strictly sci-fi fan perspective, Toby thinks all of it is really cool. From a more realistic perspective, he understands none of it. He likes science in theory but not always in practice. Geology is cool, though, and man, Toby’d love to learn more about astrogeology.

“Do you miss Akiridion-5?” Douxie asks. Krel blinks at him. “I mean – you were back for a little bit. Do you miss living there?”

“I miss Aja,” says Krel. “And Varvatos and Zadra and Eli. And my parents. I guess I kind of miss my lab. But not Akiridion-5 in particular. At least here I have friends. I wouldn’t trade you guys for the world.”

“We’re glad you stayed,” Steve says. He reaches over and ruffles Krel’s hair, much to Krel’s annoyance. Seamus hits him lightly on the arm with a smile. Toby grins at him from across the table. “Don’t know what we’d do without you, bud.”

Krel seems to glow under the positive attention, or maybe he’s actually glowing, that’s also a possibility. Mort chuckles and takes a bite of his pizza before speaking. “After lunch, we’ll need to split up. Steve, I want to work more with you on shields and maybe start some long-range offensive spells.”

“Finally,” Steve says.

“Krel, Nimue and I are going to work with you on your powers,” says Ikram. Krel nods. “Hopefully within a few days we can have you – well, not getting stuck in the ceiling for starters.”

“I could use a few extra hands in the shop, if either of you are interested,” Douxie says, glancing between Toby and Seamus.

“Count me in,” says Toby.

“Sure,” Seamus agrees.

“We really do appreciate it, boys,” says Mort. “It’s hard to find employees. Can’t just hire random kids like most businesses.”

“You know, I bet having a job in high school looks good on college apps,” says Toby.

Mort laughs. “Yes, yes, you can keep working here during the school year if you wish. You’re all always welcome.”

“If I tell my mom I work here she’ll start asking for a discount,” Seamus warns.

Mort rolls his eyes. “She already has one. Remind her she already has one so she’ll stop asking.”

“She won’t,” says Seamus. “You’ll have to remind her again next time she comes in.”

“Does your mom know about – all this?” Steve asks.

Seamus makes a so-so motion with his hand. “She knows something’s up because Mort asked her to look into it. She doesn’t know you’re involved or, worse, that _I’m_ involved.”

“You might want to tell her, dude,” Toby says.

“Eventually,” says Seamus. He gives Krel a sideways look. “When Krel tells Aja.”

“Ah, so never,” Krel says.

Mort sighs and rubs his forehead. He glances at Ikram and Nimue. “Are either of you going to help me, or do I have to be the only responsible adult?”

“Don’t look at me,” says Nimue. “I’m still in college. By default I’m not a responsible adult.”

“Yeah, I’m leaving this to you,” says Ikram, crossing her arms and leaning back in her chair.

Mort points at Krel and Seamus as if he’s going to start scolding them, but ultimately shakes his head. “We’ll talk about this later.”

Toby’s just glad he was the responsible one – huh, look at that, _he’s_ the responsible one – and told Nana right away. At least he isn’t on the wrong side of Mort’s disapproval this time.

“Do you ever get customers who aren’t my mom?” Seamus asks as he adjusts merchandise on one of the shelves this afternoon. Toby amuses himself messing with the cash register. There isn’t much else to do in the shop. Seamus has a point that there are basically never any customers. Toby’s worked in here several times over the past few weeks and only seen, like, three people, ever.

“We do, actually, although Mrs. J’s probably one of our most common,” says Douxie. “We get wizards from all over passing through Arcadia. Sometimes we get really curious mundanes who think it’s a novelty shop, and the occasional conspiracy theorist of course. We’ve had the odd troll or two during late hours.”

“Wait, really?” Toby asks.

“Yep,” says Douxie. “I know the Trollmarket trolls were convinced trollkind was some well-kept secret from humans, but we wizards have been trading with trolls for centuries.”

“Huh,” says Toby.

“No one told me about trolls,” Seamus grumbled. “I had to find out the hard way like everyone else. And extra-terrestrials! I get back from space camp and like, the next day, Arcadia’s under attack.”

“Quite a welcome home,” says Douxie amusedly. “Extra-terrestrials, gotta admit, I wasn’t expecting that one.”

“Not even with your foresight or whatever?” Toby asks. Douxie chuckles and shakes his head. “Have you had any more visions of the future we should know about?”

“Nope,” says Douxie. “I could do some scrying if you’d like, but that’s just as likely to show us twenty years from now as it is to show us twenty hours from now.”

“Future-sight is always sketchy at best,” says Seamus.

Toby leans back in his chair and throws his hands behind his head. “Man, I’d kill to be able to see the future.”

“It’s mostly having dreams and then wondering which ones were future-sight and which ones were because you had too much soda before bed,” says Douxie. “I thought the Eternal Night was a normal nightmare until I brought it up to Mort and he recognised it.”

The lights flicker. Douxie frowns, but Toby doesn’t think too much of it until they do it again and finally die, plunging the shop into what would be darkness if it weren’t for the daylight through the window.

“That’s odd,” mutters Douxie. “Even the magical lights are out.”

Seamus holds out his hands as if he’s going to try a spell. His brow furrows. “Something blocking my magic.”

“What?” says Douxie, eyes widening. He tries to cast a spell as well, to no avail. Toby stands and walks around to join Douxie and Seamus in front of the desk. “No magic. You’re right.”

“Wait,” says Toby. “If the magic’s down, then what about–”

On cue, the door flies open. Toby tries to activate his war-hammer. It activates, but hits the floor immediately afterwards. Right. No magic, no anti-gravity spell, no way Toby's going to be able to lift this thing. The Black Knight walks in first, followed by a second, stockier Knight dressed in red. Oh, great, there’s two of them now. The Red Knight tosses something up and down in his hand. It takes Toby a few seconds too long to recognise it for what it is.

“I know what that is,” he mumbles. He gives up his war-hammer in favour of grabbing his friends’ hands and dragging them backwards. “Get down!”

They’re not fast enough. The dwarkstone hits the ground and explodes behind them, sending all three of them flying into the back shelves, which crack and fall in large pieces with them. Toby’s ears ring and his head pounds.

“Fire!” Seamus calls. Toby follows his gaze to note that, oh, yeah, the shop’s caught fire. _Oh, crap, the shop’s caught fire_! “Douxie, where’s your fire extinguisher?”

“About that,” says Douxie.

“You have got to be kidding me,” Toby mutters. “You don’t have a fire extinguisher? Almost everything in your shop is flammable!”

“Well, we thought we’d always have magic!” Douxie says, like that makes things better.

The Knights are blocking the door. They’re so screwed. Toby pulls himself to his feet, then helps Seamus up. The taller boy has blood rapidly soaking the left side of his face, and he’s holding his shoulder awkwardly, but he looks otherwise okay. Douxie is holding his head, but Toby can’t see any other – wait – yikes.

“Douxie, don’t panic,” he starts with. This is the wrong thing to start with, because Douxie immediately looks concerned. “You’ve got – well…”

He’s not sure how to tactfully say he’s got a big ol’ piece of wood jutting out of his shoulder, so instead he just gestures awkwardly. Seamus notices too and pales. “Nope, I don’t do stab wounds. Big nope.”

“Oh, that’s not good,” says Douxie faintly, eyes landing on the wood slowly saturating red. His hand twitches like he wants to pull it out, but even Toby knows better than to do that so Douxie doesn’t bother.

The trapdoor flies open. Toby mentally begs his friends to not come in here, but Krel is the first to emerge, so Toby definitely doesn’t have the gift of telepathy. He does have the gift of a major headache right now, which might actually be a concussion now that he thinks about it.

“Oh, kleb,” Krel says. He darts to Toby and Seamus and Douxie, luckily in the opposite direction of the Knights. Ikram and Nimue emerge next and stand protectively between the Knights and the rest of them. “Are you okay? Douxie’s been impaled – oh, that is not good, this is very not good.”

“You’re going to need to make a run for it,” Ikram calls. “I’ll stay and distract the Knights. The rest of you are useless without magic.”

“Excuse me?” Nimue says, but she doesn’t have a weapon or armour so against the Knights she probably doesn’t stand a chance. She backs down at a glare from Ikram. Krel’s face hardens. Toby recognises that expression. It’s the Krel’s-Got-A-Bad-Plan expression. Toby’s seen it way too many times lately.

“I’m not,” he says. Ikram frowns at him. “I’m not. Gaylen’s powers – _my_ powers aren’t magic.”

“No way, Krel,” says Toby. “You barely know how to use your powers.”

“Barely is better than not at all.” He materialises a sword and walks forward. “Ikram can’t hold them off alone, but maybe we can together.”

“Krel’s right,” says Ikram. “Go. Quickly, I don’t know how long we have.”

Why haven’t the Knights attacked yet? Were they just hoping the smoke and fire would kill Toby and the others so they wouldn’t have to? He pushes these thoughts away as Krel and Ikram engage the Knights. It’s obvious right away they’re outmatched – Ikram could take one by herself, but not two, and Krel can’t even take one alone. There’s no part of Toby that’s okay with leaving them, but he’s also no help without his hammer.

“Go!” Krel yells, dodging sideways and just barely not getting skewered by the Red Knight’s sword. Nimue helps a dizzy looking Seamus, and Toby and Douxie follow. Once outside, Toby coughs up smoke and blinks the burning out of his eyes. Parts of his clothing are charred, but aside from some minor burns, he’s fine. They’re out. He’s certain that Krel and Ikram will be out as soon as they can.

Mort and Steve appear out of Nimue’s shop. Archie bounds out after the two wizards, fur raised. Mort’s eyes dart over them, hovering briefly on Douxie, and he shakes his head. “Where are Krel and Ikram?”

“They’re still in there,” Toby says numbly. Everyone’s out. They need to get out too. Why haven’t they come out, too?

“Still in there?” Steve repeats in disbelief.

“Magic is down,” Douxie manages. “They were holding off the Knights so we could escape.”

“Knights, plural!?” Steve squeaks.

Mort’s face darkens into a glare. “Stay here. I’m going in.”

“You don’t have a weapon!” Douxie protests. He lurches forward towards his uncle, but Nimue restrains him so he doesn’t mess up his injury too much. ”There’s no magic, you’re as defenceless as Nimue.”

“I don’t need magic or a weapon to fight,” Mort says. “Stay. Put. I mean it, all of you.”

He starts towards the shop, just in time for a figure to be thrown through the window. Mort catches her – Ikram – and sets her down as quickly and respectfully as he can. She’s holding her side where scarlet blossoms on the pale-yellow fabric of her shirt and she’s coughing roughly, face stained with smoke, but she still lunges back towards the shop. She stumbles and falls to her knees. Toby and Nimue run to her, Nimue putting her hands on Ikram’s shoulders. By now, fire trucks are pulling up on the street.

“Krel,” Ikram gasps out. She coughs again. “Krel, he’s alone in there – they’ll kill him–”

“I’ll get him,” Mort says. He wastes no more time before running towards the flaming shop. Toby, with no one to stop him, darts after him. Krel could be hurt, and, even if he’s not, he doesn’t stand a chance in there by himself.

Before they can make it in, there’s a loud crackling sound, and the shop collapses in on itself. Mort skids to a horrified stop, throwing an arm out to stop Toby as smouldering wood crashes down in the spot they would have been if they kept running.

“No, no, no,” breathes Mort.

“Krel!” Toby screams. He hears Seamus echo him, but barely notices as the boy stumbles up beside him, face bloodier than it was before.

This can’t be happening. This _can’t_ be _happening._ Krel’s fine – Krel has Gaylen’s core, so Krel has to be fine. He’s – he’s practically a god now, isn’t he? Isn’t that what Gaylen’s core means? Maybe he made himself a shield or – or something. Maybe he escaped. Maybe he’s hiding downstairs. The building hasn’t collapsed that far.

Some of the debris falls away. Toby can just barely make out the figures of the two Knights – only the two Knights. Not Krel. They turn and walk away as water from the fire trucks rains down on the still flaming remains of Mort’s shop. There’s still no sign of Krel. Toby tells himself again that his friend is hiding. Under a shield. Maybe a bit beat up but he’ll be fine with a few bandages and ice packs.

“Krel!” Mort calls. He shakes his head. “He might be unconscious. He usually is.”

There’s something uneasy in his tone. Toby’s never heard Mort’s voice tremble like it is now. It’s not a good sign.

The EMTs have already gotten a hold of Douxie, but before they can grab Seamus, too, he stumbles into the still-smoking remains of the shop. Toby and Steve both follow before anyone can stop them. Toby digs through debris, ignoring how the charred wood burns his trembling hands.

“Krel, answer me!” Mort yells desperately. His voice breaks in a way Toby never imagined it could. He’s joined them in the shop. The rest of them echo, calling for Krel, but Toby thinks that if Krel could have responded he would have by now. Krel gets knocked out all the time. This is nothing new. They’ll find him. He’ll be hurt, probably – probably pretty badly, but nothing they can’t fix.

There’s a small sound from behind him, a weak, choked sob, and Toby turns. Steve has stopped digging. He’s hunched over, sitting on his cast in a way that can’t be comfortable, hands out and cupped in front of him. Toby carefully walks over to him, to see why he would make that sound.

“No,” Mort whispers, face pale. Toby falls to his knees.

Krel told him once that, as long as their cores remain intact, Akiridions can survive almost anything. At the time, Toby had thought it was kind of interesting but not something they’d have to worry too much about. They could protect Krel fine. They were prepared. Now, staring at the shards of Akiridion core cupped in Steve’s blistered hands, Toby realises just how wrong he was.


	17. Graduation Day

Steve’s whole body is numb. He’s vaguely aware that the others have gathered around him, vaguely aware of Mort’s faint and desperate whisper, but everything sounds like it’s muted, like he’s underwater.

This can’t be real.

Any moment now, Steve’s going to wake up from a horrible nightmare, and he’ll look over and see Krel curled up asleep, oblivious, intact. He’ll wake him up, just to be sure, and Krel will laugh but hug him and reassure him, because they’ve all had nightmares like this before. It _has_ to be a dream. The worst dream Steve’s ever had. These shattered, burnt shards can’t be – they can’t be–

He hears a broken sob. Seamus falls to his knees beside Steve, and it’s enough to break the illusion. Steve realises he, too, is crying, tears dripping off his chin and onto his shorts. This is real. This is real, Krel is – he’s – _gone_.

“We left him,” Toby whispers. Steve doesn’t turn around, doesn’t take his eyes off of the pieces of Akiridion core – of _Krel’s_ core cradled in his hands. “We left him, we – no. No, no, this isn’t–”

Seamus’s breath hitches, like he wants to say something, but the sounds that come out are unintelligible. Steve pulls the broken core to his chest and closes his eyes. How could this have happened to Krel? The boy Steve had come to see as a little brother? How can this be all that’s left?

A hand lands on Steve’s shoulder.

“We need to leave,” Mort says. His voice wavers and cracks. “It’s not safe. The rest of the building could be unsound.”

Mort tugs Steve to his feet. Steve is aware he isn’t much help right now, but he can’t bring himself to care. He sucks in a rough breath, and when he lets it out it comes as a sob. His grip on Krel’s core tightens. Mort steadies him with a hand as they walk out. Steve shouldn’t be off the crutches, but he won’t let go of Krel.

Douxie breaks away from the paramedics to run to them. “Did you find him?”

They don’t say anything. They don’t have to. Douxie’s face crumples and he shakes his head. Archie, at Douxie’s feet and still pretending to be a normal cat, lowers his head and rubs up against his wizard’s leg. Steve takes another breath that ends with another sob. It still doesn’t feel real. He’s still so sure Krel’s going to stride out from the wreckage, injured but alive, and make fun of them for being so upset. But that won’t happen. Steve’s holding the equivalent of his friend’s dead body. The thought brings another uneven sob.

Steve doesn’t pay much attention to anything that happens next. Toby and Seamus stay close to him and subsequently to Krel. Seamus’s face is still coated with blood, seeping down his neck and into his t-shirt, nearly invisible on the black fabric. Ikram joins them, limping but refusing to be left behind. Nimue supports her. They follow Mort, because Mort seems to know what to do, and Steve feels lost. His little brother is dead and never coming back.

They’re at the same cliff where they’d taken Krel after he’d integrated with Gaylen’s core. Not that that had done any good. Steve thought – he was so sure Krel was safe, because the wizard wanted him alive, and wasn’t Morando nearly impossible to kill with Gaylen’s core? Apparently, he was wrong. He realises a few seconds later why they’re here. Aja has to know.

Mort is the one to call her. Steve doesn’t think any of the rest of them could manage. He leans sideways on Toby, and Toby leans back, the two of them supporting each other’s weight and grief. He doesn’t pay attention to what Mort says. Seamus wipes his cheeks and smears blood across his face in the process. Steve closes his eyes when the wormhole opens. How can he face Aja after letting Krel die?

“What’s going on?” he hears her ask. He bites back another sob. “Steve? Toby? Where’s – where’s Krel?”

Seamus’s breathing hitches. Steve swallows roughly and opens his eyes, blinking away the tears blurring his vision. He lowers his hands to reveal the burnt shards that are all that remain of Aja’s baby brother and feels sick as he finally meets Aja’s terrified eyes.

“I’m sorry,” he manages. Aja takes a step forward, then collapses to her knees in front of him, trembling and shaking her head. Steve tries to find something else to say as she lets out a soft, keening noise and looks up at him, desperate, pleading.

“No,” she says. Steve just shakes his head. Aja takes a deep, shaking breath, and her brow lowers into a hard, angry line. “What happened?”

Steve tries to speak, but nothing comes out. What can he possibly say? Sorry, we've been hiding from you that there are these crazy knights who've been attacking us, and now your brother is dead? Mort takes over for him, stepping forward. If Steve hadn’t seen the way his eyes shone and heard the way his voice shook earlier, he might have thought Mort was business-like coldness. He knows better.

"It's a long story, your majesty," Mort says.

Aja’s lips tremble, but she closes her eyes and tries to compose herself.

“Give him to me,” she whispers.

Part of Steve doesn’t want to. How can he let go of Krel? But this is Krel’s big sister, the only blood family he had left, so Steve gently passes her the shards of his core and watches as tears spill over her cheeks and she cradles what’s left of her baby brother to her chest. Steve starts to reach out to her, but she flinches away and refuses to look at him. Mort passes Steve back his crutches. Steve takes them dazedly. He’s still floating. This still doesn’t feel real.

“Come on,” says Aja, her voice soft, as shattered as Krel is. “Let’s go.”

Steve’s still-living friends are patched up by Mort and Akiridion doctors when they first reach the planet. Eli greets Steve with a tight hug and a lot of tears when he realises what happened. Steve doesn’t bother arguing against it, instead holding his friend close because contact gives proof that he’s alive. In the back of his mind, he decides that he should have shown his affection more often. He hopes Krel knew he loved him like a little brother, even if he never said it.

By the time they’re done, Steve has stopped crying and the detachment has settled back in. Aja allows him to hover close to her, to Krel’s core cradled in her hands. No one speaks. Steve thinks that if they did, everyone would be back to crying. He knows he would.

The broken shards of Krel’s core have to be restored to their original form before the funeral. Typically, according to Aja, this would be a family-only event, but the rest of them and Stuart, who someone called and brought to Akiridion-5, are allowed to join Aja as she carefully arranges the burnt pieces over a device that keeps them levitating in mid-air an inch or so above it.

“Krel considers – _considered_ you family,” she says softly. “He would – want you to be here.”

It still doesn’t feel real, watching Aja gently piece together the only thing remaining of her little brother, of Steve’s friend. He’s not sure it will ever quite feel real. Death is – well, a new concept for Steve. He’s never lost anyone like this before. If he’s honest, he didn’t think he would for a very long time. Even with all of this going on, he felt like his friends were invincible. Steve remembers promising Aja he’d take care of Krel. It hasn’t even been a full day since they left. How could things have gone so wrong so quickly?

Aja picks up the device and Krel’s core. There’s no denying, now, seeing it put back together, that it’s Krel core, although burnt and cracked. There’s no denying that Krel’s gone and never coming back. They walk to a separate chamber, full of floating Akiridion cores that Steve realises might be Aja and Krel’s ancestors. The room is beautiful, the walls intricately carved and design, the cores likes stars in a dark night sky, lit faintly by technology in an imitation of the life-glow they’d once held. Steve’s numbness has yet to fade. Aja cradle’s Krel’s core close to her own, as if afraid to let it go. She closes her eyes and takes a deep breath.

“May you be welcomed by our ancestors long gone,” she starts, voice trembling as she speaks what must be words of tradition. Steve keeps his eyes on her, on Krel’s core floating barely an inch above her palms, and doesn’t bother fighting the new tears as they form. “May your life's light burn brightly among the stars for all to see. May you guide us on our paths until we meet again. Although your light may be gone from this world, it will continue to shine in the next as we remember you and the life you led.”

Her voice breaks off with a wet gasp. Stuart, behind them, lets out a wail. He’s the loudest in his mourning, but if Steve listens he can hear Seamus choking back his sobs and Toby and Eli sniffling. Aja blinks rapidly and looks up at the other cores hovering in the room.

“I’m sorry, little brother,” she whispers. “I couldn’t protect you. I should have been there to protect you. If I’d been there, then maybe – maybe – I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”

_I’m so sorry_, Steve echoes in his mind, grip tightening on his crutches until it hurts his palms. _He_ was supposed to be the protector, wasn’t he? He couldn’t fight anymore, not with his leg, so he was supposed to be the one to shield his friends, to keep them safe. But he let Krel die. He let Aja’s little brother – he let _his _little brother die. He failed Aja by not protecting him. He failed _Krel_.

Aja lifts her hands, then hesitates. Fresh tears slip down her cheeks, and finally, she releases Krel’s core into the air to join the others in the room. Steve follows it with his eyes as it floats sluggishly upward and surprises himself when his next breath comes as a choked gasp. Aja lets out a broken cry, then turns and wraps her arms around Steve, burying her face in the crook of his neck and sobbing, shoulders shaking. Steve holds her tightly, desperately, closing his eyes against her hair and letting his own tears fall again.

He can’t bear to look at his brother's core any longer.

A few hours later finds all of them gathered for dinner. Steve isn’t hungry, and no one else seems to be, either. Toby pushes his food around on the plate. Eli sniffs pitifully every few minutes and does the same. Seamus has pulled his knees to his chest and stares ahead blankly, face still tear-tracked, head wrapped in make-shift Akiridion bandages. Douxie, arm in a sling, takes small bites every now and then; Archie is curled on his lap, asleep. Nimue and Ikram are murmuring to each other, low enough that Steve can’t hear. Mort just keeps cutting his meat – or what looks like meat – in smaller pieces.

“It’s just not fair,” Stuart blubbers. “He was so young!”

Aja’s lips twist into a deeper frown. She wipes tears from her cheeks. Steve gets some food onto his fork, as if he’s going to eat it, but last second feels sick and decides against it. He sets down the fork.

“What _happened_?” Aja asks.

Steve swallows dryly. She deserves the truth, but he’s not even sure where to begin. So much has happened that led up to this. They should have told her sooner, if not right away. Toby sets his spoon down and pushes his plate back.

“Krel didn’t want to tell you,” he says softly. “I think he didn’t want to worry you, and he said you had a lot to deal with here.”

“Maybe if Krel had told us, he’d still be alive,” Zadra says tartly. Aja flinches, but she nods in agreement anyway. Steve doesn’t know if they’re right, because the attack on the shop came out of nowhere, but he’s always believed the Akiridions would be helpful in this whole thing. Maybe she’s right. Maybe if Aja, at least, had been there, Krel would have been okay.

“It was – probably the day after you left,” says Steve hesitantly. Aja’s brow lowers. Steve wonders if she’s blaming herself for leaving – or for letting Krel stay. Eli leans forward, clearly curious despite his sadness. In any other circumstance, Steve knows Eli would have loved all of this, the wizards and the Knights and the magic. “We got attacked by – well, Ikram, actually, but she was mind-controlled. I guess there’s this – evil wizard or something, and he sent the Knights after us, and all we really know is that he’s after Earth’s formstone and he wants me dead because I guess I’m descended from King Arthur or something.”

“We thought he wanted Krel alive,” Seamus mutters. He doesn’t look at Aja, still staring forward. His fingers tighten on his arms, visibly indenting the skin. “Apparently we were wrong.”

Toby shakes his head and blinks rapidly, as if he might start crying again. “Two of the Knights attacked Mort’s shop and disabled the magic, which left most of us kind of defenceless, and Krel and Ikram stayed behind to fight but – Krel never – we don’t know what happened.”

“I should have been there,” Aja snaps. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

Steve shakes his head. “Krel didn’t–”

“You shouldn’t have listened to him!” Aja’s voice breaks halfway through her sentence. Fresh tears spill over and she glares around the table at all of them. “You should have told me. I should have been there, and I wasn’t, and now my baby brother is _dead_!”

“I’m sorry,” Steve says. The words taste bitter and ashy on his tongue. Is that the best he can do? He let Krel die and all he has are useless excuses and worthless apologies. Aja’s expression turns stony.

“You promised he’d be safe,” she says.

“This is on me, your majesty,” Mort says quietly. He meets Aja’s furious gaze unflinchingly, but even Steve can read the pain in his eyes, the way his brow twitches downwards and lips curl. “I shouldn’t have allowed them to keep this a secret. I should have been there to protect Krel. I wasn’t, and I will never forgive myself for letting him die.”

“There was little we could have done,” says Ikram. “It was a surprise attack. There’s no telling if you would have gotten there on time even if you were in the know, and there’s no point in should haves and what ifs.”

This was probably the wrong thing to say. Aja stands abruptly and turns away from the table.

“I think you all should leave,” she says coldly.

“Aja,” Steve starts. He reaches a hand out towards her.

“I can’t, Steve.” She flinches away from him. Steve shrinks back but she refuses to even look. She takes a shuddering breath and closes her eyes. “We – we need a break. Just go home. Please.”

She strides out of the room, carrying herself with the air of someone on the edge of breaking completely. Part of Steve wants to follow her and comfort her, but that would have been a job for her boyfriend, huh? Which he’s not anymore. Part of him, selfishly, is almost angry, because just because he wasn’t Krel’s blood brother doesn’t mean he didn’t love Krel, too. Aja isn’t the only one who lost someone she loves. Instead, he pushes his plate back and stands. The others watch him worriedly.

“You heard her majesty,” he says bitterly. “Let’s go home.”

Part of Steve would have liked to have spent the past few days hiding in his room, but another, larger part, didn’t want his remaining friends out of sight. Toby and Seamus, apparently, felt the same way, and so all three of them – and newly homeless Mort and Douxie and a newly returned-to-Earth Eli – ended up sleeping over at Seamus’s house. Steve hopes the Knights don’t know where Seamus lives. Mort does a bunch of wards anyway, even more than there’d been around his shop. Eli’s return was almost a surprise, but at the same time Steve can see why he’s back.

“I’m not going to risk any more friends dying while I’m not here,” Eli had said. Steve gets it, but he’s torn. He’s glad to have his Creepslaying partner back, but there’s a part of him that wished Eli had stayed on Akiridion-5 where he’d be safe.

They spend the next few days alternating between trying to keep their minds off of what happened and watching all the dumb videos of Krel they have saved on their phones. Toby has a lot, courtesy of the DJ Kleb film, but Steve has a memorable one of karaoke not that long ago. They catch Eli up on all the magic stuff, show him some spells, but all of their enthusiasm is lacking. Even Eli, who Steve knows would have been all over this before, can only manage lacklustre excitement at the cooler spells.

School was supposed to start today, but Coach had pulled all the teachers in for a meeting and had explained the whole end of the world thing going on, with Mort’s help. Señor Uhl almost immediately agreed – Steve supposes it’s because they’ve already dealt with two or three apocalypses (if they count the asteroid). More and more people are finding out. Steve thinks it might be a good thing. It’s definitely a good thing if it means they don’t have to deal with this _and_ school.

They go to the scorched remains of Mort’s shop this afternoon. Steve feels physically sick to be back here. Krel died here. Steve _let_ Krel die here. Almost nothing is salvageable upstairs. Mort manages to force the trap door open – it seems the stairs to downstairs are still there and largely unburnt.

“Well, I think if it hasn’t collapsed by now it won’t,” mutters Mort. They follow him down. The downstairs seems to be pretty much intact, although a few parts of the ceiling have crumbled in. Nothing is burnt down. Eli lets out a small, subdued noise of amazement. Douxie traces a hand along the desk in the library and closes his eyes. Archie leaps onto it and butts his head against Douxie’s arms.

“Homes can be rebuilt,” he says softly.

“People can’t,” Douxie mumbles.

Steve flinches and wanders away, into the potion lab. It’s also still intact, miraculously, though there are vials that have been rattled and dropped by the motion of the initial explosion that had caught Steve and Mort’s attention in the first place. Mort and Toby follow him.

“We’re lucky the fire didn’t spread here,” says Mort. “Lots of explosive ingredients.”

“Yeah, that would have been bad,” says Toby.

“I would guess they only got the upstairs wards and magic shut down, then,” says Mort. “I don’t even know how they shut down the magic upstairs.”

Steve adjusts his crutches and glares at the wall. His eyes burn. He’d like to blame it on the dust and the ashes but he knows better.

“This is my fault,” he mutters. Toby glances at him with wide eyes. Mort frowns. “They were after me. They were trying to kill me, and instead your shop got destroyed and Krel got murdered.”

“Steve,” Mort starts.

“This isn’t your fault, man,” Toby cuts in, resting a hand on Steve’s arm. “Even if they were after you, Krel chose to stay and fight them. That – that was his choice. And if it’s anyone’s fault, it’s the Knights.”

Steve sniffs and blinks rapidly to fight back the rising tears. Mort pulls him into an awkward hug, and Steve drops his crutches to hug his mentor back. He hates this. He hates that he’s the target of crazy Knights and putting his friends in danger. He hates that he made the mistake of jinxing them, complaining that things would be boring. He’d give anything for boring, because boring would mean safety. Boring would mean that Krel would still be alive.

“Toby is right,” Mort murmurs, pulling away but keeping his hands on Steve’s shoulders. “This isn’t your fault. This is the Knights and their master’s fault. We can’t change what happened, and we can’t blame ourselves. Krel wouldn’t want that.”

“It’s not fair,” Steve manages. “He was just a kid. We’re all just kids.”

“No,” agrees Mort. Toby steps up next to Steve again and wipes his eyes. Steve swallows. “It’s not fair. Nothing about this is fair. You’re just kids. You shouldn’t have to deal with any of this, and if I could take this burden off your shoulders, I would in a heartbeat. But I can’t.”

Steve rubs his eyes with an arm. If he just closes his eyes and ignores the faint smell of charred wood he can almost pretend nothing ever happened. It’s just another day of magic training, and Krel is next door, learning to master his new powers and kick butt. But he opens his eyes and the smokey smell floods his senses again and the illusion crashes. When does the pain dull? When will he stop expecting Krel to walk in and start blabbering about science Steve doesn’t understand, bragging about his new skills, smiling and laughing and just being a kid like he’s supposed to be?

“How are we supposed to save the world if we couldn’t even save our friend?” Toby asks, voice small and raw with grief that Steve is starting to think will never fade, since it hasn’t yet, days later.

“What’s important is that you try,” says Mort softly. “Both of you have the makings of greatness in you, and I know you can reach it. I have total faith in you. _You_ have to have faith in yourselves.”

Steve doesn’t know how he can do that. He’s injured, he can’t fight, and he let one of his closest friends die. Maybe Mort has faith in them, but Steve can’t find that faith for himself. Not after this.

“I know it’s hard,” Mort says, as if reading Steve’s mind. He lets out a breath and turns around, walking deeper into the lab and opening a safe in the back, the one Steve knew existed but has always been a bit scared to open. “I think it’s time I give you this.”

He pulls a box out of the safe and turns to face them.

“Normally, training would last years before technical graduation, but… I don’t think we have years,” he continues. “Your learning will never end. Mine hasn’t. But as of today… I am declaring you graduated, and finally giving you your formal armour.”

Mort passes the box gently to Steve. Toby helpfully holds his crutches for him as he sits down on the nearest chair – the only one in the potion lab – and gingerly opens the box. Inside is golden armour, intricately designed and laying on top of a crimson cape. Steve lifts the helmet out of the box and turns it, observing the shape of it, reminiscent of a crown. He feels his heritage, his place as heir of King Arthur, weigh down on him as he hesitantly puts the helmet on to test it. It fits perfectly.

_Heir Squared_, his mind supplies in Krel’s gleeful voice. Steve closes his eyes and takes in a shaking breath.

“Thank you, Mort,” he manages to say.

Mort nods to him, a sad, grim smile briefly pulling his lips upward.

“It suits you,” he says softly.

Steve takes off the helmet and puts it back in the box. He’s not ready for this. He’s not sure he’ll ever be ready for this. Toby rests a hand on Steve’s shoulder, mouth pulled into a thin, determined line.

“We’re going to win this,” he says. “For Krel.”

Steve swallows and closes the box, hugging it to his chest and nodding. Toby’s right. This isn’t just fighting to save the world anymore. This is personal.

“For Krel,” he echoes.

That night, after the sun has set and Aaarrrgghh!!! can join them, they stake out on the clifftop just outside the town – it’s far enough away from other people that no one will get hurt who isn’t involved, which is good because Steve doesn’t think the Knights care much about civilian casualties. Steve calls Aja for the first time since she kicked them off Akiridion-5. As he suspected, she does want to be there to help capture the Knights. She, Vex, and Zadra show up shortly after the rest of them arrive, all three geared for battle. Aja barely spares him a glance, face set in hard determination. Steve ignores the sting of hurt. He deserves her anger.

Steve’s new armour fits him like a glove. He doesn’t know if that’s a magic thing or if someone measured him in his sleep, but he also doesn’t really care. It’s a little bit hard to navigate with crutches and armour, but he’d rather have the armour than be without it. Most of the others are in armour, too, with the exception of Mort, Eli, Aaarrrgghh!!!, and the Akiridions. Steve doesn’t know why Mort is armourless. He doesn’t ask.

“Alright,” says Mort. “Remember the plan. No one attack until my signal.”

The others nod. Steve has his doubts Aja even knows the plan, honestly. He hopes she’ll at least wait for Mort’s signal. He also hopes the Knights fall for this – Aaarrrgghh!!! and Vex, especially, are kind of hard to hide in the bushes, and surely he isn’t stupid enough to fall for the same trick twice.

Wait. Armoured footsteps sound. Turns out the Black Knight is stupid enough to fall for the same trick twice, because he walks out of the forest – helmet on this time – and stops a foot or so in front of them. Toby shifts his grip on his hammer, lips pulling upward into a barely noticeable snarl.

“The wizardling and the Trollhunter,” says the Black Knight.

“BK,” Toby greets, eyes narrowing.

“One short, I see,” he notes. “So we were successful in killing the little alien. You can never be sure – even when you watch them die, some aliens have a nasty habit of coming back.”

Toby’s brow lowers. Steve presses his lips together and adjusts his crutches to free a hand for a rune if needed.

“You said you wanted Krel alive,” Toby says.

“Plans change,” replies the Knight. “We weighed our options. Ultimately, keeping him alive would have been more troublesome than eliminating him from the equation. Besides – killing him was enjoyable.”

Aja lets out a roar and charges out of the bushes towards the Knight. The other emerge as well, but Aja attacks with anger fuelled by the grief of losing her last and most precious family member. The Knight barely has time to dodge her first attack and then rapidly block her next. He’s outnumbered and outmatched with all of them there. He has no chance. Steve meets Douxie’s eyes, and the other wizard nods and the two of them set to work creating a ward around the perimeter so the Knight can’t escape. Steve can’t do much else, and Mort has forbidden Douxie from genuine fighting until his shoulder heals, so they’re Team Injured together.

It didn’t take them very long to set the perimeter – they may have over-runed a little bit, but, even then it couldn’t have been longer than ten minutes. Still, by the time Steve returns his attention properly to the fight, Vex has hauled the Black Knight up and Aja is aiming a blaster at him, face streaked with livid tears. Mort puts a hand on her shoulder, staring unfeelingly at the Knight. Aja doesn’t lower her weapon.

“Restrain him,” Mort says. “We will question him again. Maybe this time he’ll be more cooperative.”

Steve crutches back towards them as they tie up the Knight. He’s still smiling – why is he still smiling? He lost. Big time. There’s nothing to smile about for the Knight, so now Steve’s kind of worried what his plan is.

“Who is your master?” Mort demands.

“I’ll never say.” The Knight’s grin widens. “I got to kill the boy. Oh, but we made it hurt first–”

“Shut up,” Aja snarls.

“It was _delightful_ to watch the light fade from his eyes.” His grin sharpens, shark-like. “To see his form flicker and vanish under my axe. The way he begged in his last moments, delirious, dying, for his _big sister_ to save him – except she never came, did she?”

Aja gives a furious scream, and before any of them can stop her, her serrator – now in sword form rather than blaster – slices clean through the Knight’s neck. Steve looks away, physically ill at the violent death but also unable to make himself feel anything other than grim satisfaction at the Knight’s fate.

“We needed information,” Mort says, frustration lacing his voice.

“He killed my brother,” Aja says coldly. “He deserved a worse fate than this.”

She holds herself firmly, head high, expression neutral, but Steve knows her well enough to see that she’s hurting. He takes a half-step towards her, then decides against it. He knows she’s still angry at him, and she has every right to be. He’s not going to overstep his boundaries now.

A wormhole opens at the edge of the cliff. Steve doesn’t know who called for it, or when, and for all he knows Aja expected the fight to be this short and planned accordingly. Vex nods to them sombrely and he and Zadra walk through first. Aja hesitates, still staring ahead, then turns and walks tensely through the wormhole as well. Steve’s not sure he’ll ever see any of them again.

Aja didn’t even say goodbye.


	18. The Power of Gaylen

The first thing Krel registers as he wakes is pain. He feels weak and hot and burning, except for a few spots that are numb, which he doesn’t take as a good sign. He’s disoriented enough that nothing else registers for several sectons – seconds – whatever – until he realises he’s moving. Well. He’s not moving. Someone is moving him. A few more seconds, and he finally realises his hands are roughly tied, and the person carrying him is dressed in red armour. Krel doesn’t know anyone with red armour, except–

The Knight. The Knight from Mort’s shop.

Everything rushes back to him. Hearing the explosion from Nimue’s gym. Running back to check on Toby and Seamus and Douxie. Fighting off the Knights in the burning shop. Ikram, injured, thrown out the window. Getting himself thrown into the smouldering shelf, barely holding to consciousness when it collapsed in a heap of flame and charred wood and molten glass figurines, the way the flames and burnt rubble bit at his skin as the armour vanished with his fleeing awareness. The Red Knight, hoisting him up.

Darkness.

He doesn’t even know if his friends are okay. He knows Toby and Seamus are hurt. He remembers Douxie with the wood sticking out of his shoulder. He saw Ikram get thrown out the window. He knows they all got _out_, but if the Knight went after them after Krel passed out, then – well – anything could have happened. He can’t dwell on it. He needs to escape. He can’t let the Red Knight bring him to the evil wizard – Mordred, if Seamus is right, but whoever it is Krel knows he’s trouble. He starts twisting in the Knight’s grasp, struggling to break free. The Knight’s grip tightens but his pace continues the same.

“In the–” Krel breaks off to cough, his throat hoarse. It’s the smoke, he knows it’s the smoke. He’s glad he’s been in Akiridion form, because he also knows humans can’t handle smoke. He takes a deep breath. “In the name of Gaylen!”

He’s thrown out of the Knight’s grip as the armour flies on. The combination of whatever powers the armour and the sharp movements breaks Krel free from ties around his wrists, leaving him free from the Knight as he drops to the ground. Krel’s glad that worked. He hadn’t even been sure if he still had the device on him. He pushes himself to his feet and wobbles, but manages to stay standing and materialise blasters on his top two arms. He aims them forward, limbs trembling from injuries hidden by armour. The Red Knight regains his balance and stares at him disinterestedly; he doesn’t even bother to draw a weapon. The Black Knight – oh, great, the Black Knight is here too – brandishes his axe threateningly.

“You’ve already proven you can’t take us both, boy,” says the Red Knight. His dark eyes dart over Krel’s weak stance. “And now you’re injured. You don’t stand a chance. Just surrender and come peacefully, and no further harm has to come to you.”

“I’ll never surrender,” Krel forces out. He can hear the rasp in this voice from the smoke. The armour rubs up against what he’s sure are bad burns underneath. Krel tries to look intimidating, or at least not like he might collapse. They’re not wrong. He can’t take both of them. But he also won’t give in without a fight. “Even if it means I have to spend the rest of my life fighting you, I’ll never come quietly. And I’ll never help your master.”

The Red Knight shifts impatiently, resting a hand on the hilt of his still-sheathed sword. “You’re in no shape to escape. Give in.”

“My friends will rescue me.” Krel knows they will. They’re probably already looking for him, and Krel’s sure Mort can track him, especially after integrating with Gaylen’s core. Didn’t Mort say Akiridion cores were easy to track? Surely his core now will be even easier. They’ll find him.

“Your friends?” The Red Knight bites out a laugh. Krel falters. It’s never a good sign when the bad guy starts laughing like that. “Your friends won’t be rescuing you anytime soon.”

“What did you do to them?” Krel demands, fear tightening around his core like a serpent. Not his friends. He can’t lose his friends. They have to be okay. “If you hurt my friends, I’ll–”

“I did nothing to your friends,” he says. Krel doesn’t let his relief last long; the Knight is happy about _something_ and that’s a bad sign. “But they won’t come for you. Why come looking for someone they know is dead?”

That – doesn’t make any sense. Krel takes a step back. “It takes more than a little fire to kill me. My friends _will_ be looking for me.”

“They already have you,” says the Red Knight, a wicked smile curling his lips upward. Krel’s brow furrows and his arms lower. “Or what’s left of you, I suppose. They must have found your broken core already.”

“No,” Krel mumbles. He shakes his head, ignoring the way that stings at the burns on the side of his face. “No, you’re lying.”

“With enough observation, it’s not very hard to fake a burnt, shattered Akiridion core,” the Red Knight says, conversationally, as if he’s trying to teach Krel something. “The hardest part is the material, but a little bit of magic goes a long way. They’ll have found it in what’s left of that pitiful shop you were hiding in.”

Krel swallows. The motion hurts, but not more than the idea that his friends think – his friends think–

“Now come quietly or things will get very, very unpleasant,” the Red Knight cuts into his thoughts. Krel’s hands tighten into fists and he raises the blasters again. Fine. No help will be coming, but he’s Gaylen’s heir, and he won’t back down that easily.

“Never,” he growls. He shoots several rapid blasts at the Knights, then, without waiting for the dust and smoke to clear, he launches himself into the air the way Nimue had tried to instruct him, which is basically jumping and refusing to land. It works long enough to get him off the ground, but an armoured hand grabs his ankle and then slams him into the ground back-first. Krel can’t stop the cry that rips from his throat as pain shoots from his burns. He blinks stars out of his vision and forces himself to his feet.

He manages to summon blasters again. The Black Knight blocks the first shot with the side of his axe. He dodges the next and runs forward. Krel leaps out of the way, then, since he knows he can’t fight one of them let alone both, he takes off running in the other direction. He doesn’t make it very far, not with his injuries. The Black Knight tackles him from behind, hands wrapping around Krel’s throat.

“Lights out,” says the Black Knight menacingly. Krel struggles in his grasp. He finally musters up enough strength and tries to use his powers to force the Knight off of him. It works, luckily, throwing the Knight backwards. Krel gasps in much-needed air and turns around just in time to see the Red Knight’s sword careening towards him. He panics and raises his arms to block it, even though that’s definitely going to hurt and might result in a lost limb or something, but it’s still better than dying.

The expected pain doesn’t come. He opens his eyes to find a white barrier, not unlike something formed by a serrator, surrounding him and blocking the Knight’s attack. He deflates with a sigh of relief, careful to maintain the barrier. For once, his powers are working with him instead of against him.

“So he was right,” murmurs the Red Knight. He sheathes his sword and observes Krel with an unidentifiable expression. Krel tries to pull himself as small as he can. The Black Knight snarls and lifts his axe. He stalks forward to attack. Krel has no idea if his barrier will hold up to another blow, but the Red Knight holds out a hand. “No, no. Not yet. Go back to Arcadia. Catch them while they’re mourning. Kill Arthur’s heir and do whatever you want with the others. They don’t concern me.”

The Black Knight glares at Krel but nods and turns away. Krel focuses his eyes on the Red Knight as he begins slowly circling Krel’s barrier, like a predator playing with his ensnared prey. Krel is trapped. If he lets the barrier down, the Knight will get him.

“You’ll tire yourself out eventually, little alien,” he says. Krel shudders when he lays a hand on the barrier and raps his fingers across it, that same sinister smile still marring his features. “I can wait.”

It’s starting to get dark. The sun has descended in the sky, leaving the clouds painted purple and pink. In any other situation, Krel would have found the sight kind of beautiful, but right now, he doesn’t like what it could mean.

He doesn’t know how long he’s been under the barrier – an hour, at least, but maybe more. He doesn’t know how long he was out. It was either not long at all or – more than a day, which scares him more than he wants to admit. His barrier is still holding. Barely. The Knight is sitting across from him now, but Krel has no doubt that even if he tried to run he wouldn’t get far. There’s no way. He’s too tired to fly, and he’s too injured to run. He’s losing energy. He’s hungry. He’s dehydrated. He hurts all over, but he doesn’t dare remove his armour to examine his injuries. The minute his barrier falls, he’s – how does Toby say it? He’s screwed.

The Red Knight, mockingly, takes a bite of a sandwich. He’s already bragged about having enough food and water for two weeks, which is far longer than Krel can hold out. Even if, by some miracle, his barrier could hold that long, even an Akiridion can’t go two whole weeks without any water and survive. Maybe Krel can, with Gaylen’s core, but he doesn’t want to test it.

So. He doesn’t have any way to escape. He’s not going to be able to last incredibly long. Instead, he turns to the only defence he has, something he learned from a few superhero comics that Eli showed him briefly before he left: annoy the bad guy by talking too much.

“Who are you, anyway?” Krel demands. The Red Knight’s eyebrows shoot up. Apparently he hadn’t expected Krel to talk to him. Krel almost regrets it with the way the words scratch his throat, but he keeps at it. “Are you – the one in charge? The wizard? Mordred?”

“Mordred?” repeats the Knight. Amusement laces his tone. “No, little alien, I am not Mordred, nor am I _in charge_.”

Wait. Does that mean Seamus is right? It _is_ Mordred? Mort seemed so sure it wasn’t, and usually Mort is right. He mentally shakes the thought away.

“What do you want from me?” he asks. “Are you trying to find the formstone? Is that why your master wants me?”

The Knight chuckles. “Clever boy.”

“I’ll never tell you where it is,” Krel bluffs. He doesn’t know where it is, but the Red Knight doesn’t need to know that. Actually, is bluffing such a good idea? Krel immediately second-guesses it. He doesn’t want to be tortured for information that doesn’t even exist. Well. Too late now.

“You don’t have to tell _me_,” says the Red Knight.

“I’ll never tell your master, either.” Krel juts out his chin defiantly and glares at the Red Knight and his stupid sandwich. “Do whatever you want to me. I’ll never say a word.”

“We’ll see.”

Krel huffs. He really won’t say a word. He doesn’t have a word to say about the formstone, besides that it’s in Arcadia. He suspects the wizard already _knows_ that much. But even if he did know where the formstone was, he wouldn’t tell. Earth is his home. He’s not about to let it get destroyed.

“Are you and BK mind-controlled, too?” he asks.

There’s a long pause. The Red Knight lowers his sandwich. “_BK_?”

“It’s easier to say,” Krel defends his friend’s nickname. It also makes the Black Knight sound less intimidating. Not that the Knights can really get less intimidating. “Can I call you Red?”

“No,” says the Red Knight.

“RK?” Krel suggests. He crinkles his nose, but that pulls at the burns on his cheek. He resists the urge to reach up and prod at them to see exactly how far they extend. At least it only seems to be the left side. “I can’t call you RK, that’s too much like Ricky. I’ll just call you Red.”

The Red Knight takes a large bite of his sandwich. It feels a lot more aggressive this time. Krel takes it as a win. He’s annoying him. Good. The more annoyed he gets, the more likely he’ll give up or something. Krel hopes.

The sundown behind him still looks lovely. For a moment, Krel is distracted by the pinks and purples and oranges of the sky. They don’t have anything like this on Akiridion-5. Earth has a type of beauty he never got to see before. He doesn’t particularly love the outdoors here, but he can admit that it’s amazing in a way Akiridion-5 can’t compare to.

“What makes you so sure I need to eat, anyway?” Krel asks. “Or drink? Or do _anything_ you humans do? I’m not from this planet. For all you know, eating is not something they have where I’m from.”

He doesn’t get a response to this.

“Maybe I photosynthesise,” he adds for good measure.

“You don’t photosynthesise,” the Red Knight says flatly.

Krel crosses his arms and pretends like the movement doesn’t hurt. These injuries have gotten old fast. “How do _you_ know that?”

The Knight lets out an aggravated sigh. Krel counts that as yet another win. He’s kind of good at this annoying people thing when he tries. It’s almost fun, if the situation were different. When he was younger, he and Aja used to take turns bothering whoever was watching them so the other could sneak off. Mama and Varvatos always fell for it. Papa and Zadra almost never did. It was easier to trick Papa into thinking they were hurt instead. Zadra didn’t fall for anything. Krel kind of wishes he had his sister now. Really, he wishes he had anyone right now. He pushes the thought out of his mind before he can focus on it.

“So, are you mind-controlled too?” he asks.

“No,” says the Red Knight.

“So you follow this – this wizard by choice,” says Krel. “Why? He can’t be a very good guy if he’s asking you to kill kids. In my experience, only really bad people do that.”

No response. Krel should have expected that. The Knight has finished his sandwich. He takes a slow, mocking drink of water. Krel pulls his knees up and forces himself not to wince.

“Why does your master hate Arthur’s heirs, anyway?” asks Krel. “Hasn’t it been hundreds of years? I bet Steve is nothing like this Arthur was. He may be a – a buttsnack sometimes, but he’s not a bad guy.”

No response, again. The Knight’s not even looking at him, instead running some sort of stone down the edge of his blade. Krel waves the arm that hurts the least. “Hey. _Hey_. Red. Red Knight. I asked you a question. You know, it’s very rude to ignore people.”

The Knight continues ignoring him. This isn’t going very well, but Krel’s determined to make it work. He launches into an Akiridion tongue-twister, the type that always annoyed him as a child when Aja and her friends would giggle and yell them when he just wanted to tinker with something. He doesn’t quite remember the words right, but the Red Knight won’t know them anyway. The Knight’s jaw twitches and his brow lowers, but he continues not looking at him. Krel, in turn, starts another tongue-twister, one of the really annoying ones with a really annoying tune to it. Maybe he could do a sung folk tale, the closest thing to Earth music Akiridion-5 really has. Those are usually more boring than annoying, though–

Finally, the Red Knight stands and walks closer to Krel’s barrier. Krel edges backwards despite himself, falling silent. The Knight taps on the barrier, then throws an arm out to his side. With a metallic shifting sound, a large shield forms on his arm. He rears back and rams it into the barrier. Krel almost physically feels the blow as sparks fly and the barrier wavers. The Red Knight meets his eyes and smirks. Perhaps Krel didn’t think his plan through very well. It seems annoying the Red Knight has had the exact opposite effect from what Krel wanted.

The Knight picks up his helmet from the ground and puts it on, then fishes a small crystal from his back. He shakes it and places it on the ground against the barrier, then walks away. Krel stares at the rapidly blinking stone in confusion.

Then it explodes. Krel scrambles backwards. As before, he feels the damage to the barrier. It doesn’t hurt, but he struggles to hold himself upright after it. The barrier holds, but barely. Krel hadn’t had any energy before, but now he feels a lot like the time he didn’t sleep for two days straight. His vision blurs. The barrier starts flickering. He forces himself to focus through the blooming headache. If the barrier falls, that’s it. Game over. The Red Knight will take Krel to the wizard and there will be nothing Krel can do about it.

He’s caught off guard when the Knight’s shield hits the barrier again. This time, he actually gasps. Another hit. Krel closes his eyes and mentally says prayers to Seklos to protect him, to his parents to give him strength.

It’s not enough. Krel feels the shield hit again. He feels the barrier shatter like glass. He tries to stand, but he can’t gather enough energy. He can barely gather the energy to open his eyes. The Red Knight’s blurry figure looms over him. Krel lets out a breath, then takes in another that takes far too much effort. The world spins and blurs and finally fades into darkness.

Krel’s head pounds. He opens his eyes, weakly, to see the ground moving far beneath him. He watches the dirt and leaves disinterestedly for a few moments. Everything’s kind of spinning. Maybe if he blinks enough times things will stop spinning. A few blinks later and the world is still spinning and blurry so maybe that won’t work.

It takes several minutes longer than it should to remember what’s going on. He’s been kidnapped. His friends – his friends think he’s dead, assuming his friends are actually okay and the Black Knight hasn’t gotten to them. It’s light outside again, so he’s been unconscious at least overnight. Maybe longer. He hopes it hasn’t been longer. He tries to open his mouth, maybe to say something, but – something’s preventing him. He’s – gagged or something. He doesn’t know. He tries to struggle. He barely has enough energy to twist a little.

“You’re awake, then,” notes the Red Knight. “Try something like that again, and I’ll take one of your arms. We need you alive, not in one piece.”

Tears burn in Krel’s eyes. He _can’t_ try anything like that again. He’s exhausted. Everything hurts. As the tears slip down his cheeks, the liquid stings the burns on his left side. His armour’s gone, and he can’t get it back without being able to speak. He’s defenceless in the hands of a crazy, evil Knight taking him to his crazy, evil master, and his friends think he’s dead, and his friends could be dead for all he knows, and he’s alone.

Before he knows it, his body is shaking with sobs. He’s alone. For the first time in his life, he’s completely, utterly alone. He’s weak and helpless and he barely has enough energy to _cry_. What good was integrating with Gaylen’s core if it can’t get him out of this situation? He’s supposed to have the power to create worlds and destroy universes, but instead here he is. Maybe – maybe Gaylen made the wrong choice. He doesn’t know enough about his powers to get himself out of this and he’s probably going to be tortured for information he doesn’t even have. He’s exhausted. He’s injured. He’s terrified. He’s alone. He’s never going to see his friends or family ever again.

Something sparks inside him. His core surges with energy, not unlike the integration process had felt. No. Krel refuses to let this be it. He’d rather die trying to escape than let the Red Knight bring him to his wizard master. He won’t let them win.

He screams the words on his device in his head, and to his shock and relief, he soars out of the Red Knight’s grasp as the armour flies onto him. Krel reaches to his face and finds the edge of – is that tape? – well, whatever is blocking his mouth. He rips it off and it doesn’t even hurt, or if it does, he doesn’t notice it. He can feel Gaylen’s power – _his _power coursing through him in electric bursts, flooding him with the energy he didn’t have before.

“I am the son of King Fialkov and Queen Coranda of Akiridion-5!” Krel exclaims. He’s hovering in mid-air without even meaning to, his powers acting without orders and glinting off his skin like sparks from a wildfire. “I am Gaylen’s chosen heir! And I will _not_ give in so easily!”

The Red Knight laughs and gets to his feet, eyes wide and deranged. “Incredible. The sheer _power_.”

“Tell your master that we are not afraid of him,” Krel snarls. “He’s not the first to come after Arcadia, and he may not be the last, but we will _not_ let him win.”

“You’re a collection of children,” scoffs the Red Knight. “You don’t stand a chance.”

Krel attacks. He’s not entirely sure what he’s doing or how he’s doing it, but it doesn’t matter. He summons bursts of energy and shoots them towards the Knight. He’s forced to raise his shield to block several when he can’t dodge. Krel determinedly keeps at it. Blast after blast. Desperate to get back home, to help his friends, to prove that Gaylen made the right choice. Angry that he got himself captured, that the Red Knight tricked his friends, that any of this is happening. When he’s gotten closer to the Knight, he lets the blasters disappear and brings two swords in their place. Before he knows it, he’s knocked the Red Knight’s sword and shield out of his grasp. For once, Krel is on the other side of the chokehold.

There’s a level of satisfaction in watching the Knight’s consciousness flee under his grasp, instead of the other way around for once. Krel is more powerful than the Knight could ever dream of becoming. He could kill the Knight with less than a thought, a twist of his hands–

Krel’s grip loosens. He lowers to the ground and stumbles backwards, hands clutched to his core, eyes wide. The Knight drops, still conscious but urgently gasping in air. For a second, Krel thinks he understands a little bit of what Gaylen felt when he was destroying worlds, the exhilaration of incomparable energy, the power of life and death held in his hands like a toy to tinker with.

He turns and flees.

Krel’s burst of energy doesn’t last much longer. By the time he’s run far enough he’s fairly sure the Knight won’t find him easily, he’s weak and trembling. He doesn’t even know if he’s been running in the right direction. It’s the opposite direction that they’d been going, as far as Krel can tell, but he doesn’t know how long he’d been unconscious and where the Knight had taken him during that time. He’s lost and tired and everything hurts.

He finally finds a tree he can sit under in the shade. The outside heat hasn’t been helping him at all. He leans against it and rests his eyes for a moment before deciding he should take inventory of his injuries. It’s… not good. His left side is the worst, which – the memory is blurry, but if he remembers correctly, it makes sense with where the bookshelf fell. The burns stretch across his torso and arm that he can see, and when he braves the pain and traces them upwards with his fingers, they snake up his neck and curl onto the left side of his face. Which, yes, he knew that. He can definitely feel them. There’s a few more burns on his right side, but far less. Krel’s had burns before, small ones from tinkering with things and messing something up, but nothing like this.

He'll need to find water at some point, as well as something to eat if he can. Akiridions, he knows, can last a lot longer than humans can without both of these, but it’s uncomfortable at best and eventually he’s going to be in trouble. He’s pretty much out of energy already. If the Red Knight finds him again, he’ll be utterly defenceless.

He wants to nap. If he closes his eyes again, he probably _will_ fall asleep. He needs to get back to Arcadia and his friends. He wishes he could call them – let them know he’s alive, make sure they’re alive – but he doesn’t have his phone. It’s likely been destroyed, which is annoying because now Krel will have to rig up a new one. He just hopes they’re all okay. Half of his friends were already injured before he’d been taken. Steve, from the Black Knight. Toby, Seamus, and Douxie from the attack on the shop. Ikram, fighting the Knights with him. Seklos, almost none of them are in good shape. In the back of his mind, Krel hopes he’s in the worst shape. He doesn’t want to imagine one of his friends hurt worse than this.

“Okay, Krel,” he mumbles to himself. “Have to keep going.”

He pushed himself to his feet. His vision goes black for a second, but he stubbornly stares forward until it returns. He starts walking, slowly, because if he goes too fast he knows he’ll pass out. Wherever he is, it’s hot and sunny and kind of miserable. Krel wishes it would rain. He imagines the cool water would feel good on his burns. They don’t have rain on Akiridion-5. He kind of likes it, usually from a distance, but right now he thinks he’d like it even up close. Toby has told him about some of the cooler Earth weather phenomena. Krel thinks they all sound exciting. Akiridion weather is bland. It doesn’t rain. It doesn’t storm. It never gets this hot, but it never gets very cold either. It’s boring. Krel likes how non-boring Earth is.

He still doesn’t know where he’s walking. He never travelled much back on Akiridion-5, and he’s certainly never travelled much here. He knows how to navigate with his phone, which he doesn’t have, and he knows vaguely that people _can_ orient themselves based on Earth’s sun, but he doesn’t know how. He hates this. He hates being lost and alone and he hates the large part of him that wishes he could lay down and sleep and hope his friends come to rescue him.

His feet are dragging and his vision is blurring. Dizziness has already begun to set in, but he pushes determinedly onward. One step at a time. He can manage that. Surely he can manage that. It’s absurd to think _Gaylen’s heir_ can’t handle walking.

The thought sticks in an uncomfortable way. He wasn’t thrilled with the idea of integrating with Gaylen’s core in the first place – seeing Morando had left him sour towards the whole thing, and there’s always been an ultimately bitter connotation to the idea of Gaylen. He created Akiridion-5. He destroyed dozens of other worlds. And now Krel has that power.

Nausea curls in his stomach at the thought of his fight with the Red Knight. He’s never killed anyone before, unless he counts Morando, which he feels like doesn’t count. The fact that he’d come so close to killing the Red Knight – that he’d almost _enjoyed _it – it scares him. For the first time since he got them, his powers genuinely scare him. He doesn’t understand them which is worse, because he’s used to being able to understand things, and he suddenly has the ability to do all sorts of terrible things he never could have before. And, yeah, he remembers what Toby said about having the ability to do bad things but it being worth it, or something, but Krel wishes he’d never found Gaylen’s core in the first place. Not only did he play right into the wizard’s plans, he wound up with abilities he never wanted or needed.

He realises a second too late that he should have been paying attention when his foot hits a rock and he lands face-first in the dirt. He painfully rolls over onto his back and stares up at the blue sky. He needs to get up. He needs to keep going.

He tries to push himself into a sitting position, but his arms won’t hold his weight. He tries again and fails again, agony flaring from his injuries. Maybe a short nap won’t hurt. He’s far enough that the Knight won’t find him, right? He needs to get home, but he won’t get home without any rest. He could regain some energy… or something…

He’s out before he can even form an argument against it.


	19. A Trollhunters Reunion

Toby’s starting to feel like he’s cursed. His parents died. Draal died. Jim and Claire left. And now Krel – Toby doesn’t even want to think about Krel, except he can’t _stop_ thinking about him. It’s not like Toby hasn’t dealt with death before. This isn’t – it’s not _new_. But – it was Krel. Younger than Toby is, murdered in cold blood while Toby stood helplessly feet away. He’s been rewatching all his recordings for the DJ Kleb film, as if that would make him feel better, sitting against Aaarrrgghh!!! and trying not to start crying all over again.

“Miss him,” Aaarrrgghh!!! rumbles sadly.

“Me too, big guy,” Toby mumbles.

“Hero.”

“Yeah. He was.”

“_DJ Kleb is here to party!_” Krel exclaims on-screen. Toby shuts the laptop; the resulting snap seems to echo in the silence of his room, and he leans back against Aaarrrgghh!!! and closes his eyes. He should sleep, but he doesn’t want to be plagued by more nightmares, visions of the fight he never saw that culminated in his friend dying. Still, he lets his eyes rest. Maybe he should suck it up and see if there’s a dream-preventing potion or something. Anything to stop him from seeing Krel die over and over again in his mind.

There’s three rapid knocks. Toby’s eyes fly open and he hops to his feet, ignoring the way his laptop clatters to the floor, and activates his war-hammer. He edges closer to the window. Aaarrrgghh!!! growls menacingly. Toby thought Mort put a ward or something around the house. How did something get past it? It doesn’t matter. They have to be ready for a fight. Toby sure isn’t going to die on his friends, especially not so soon after losing Krel.

Jim’s face appears behind the glass and screen. He holds up a hand and waves with a dopey grin spreading across his features. Toby stares at him for a second, half-convinced he’s hallucinating from a lack of sleep, before he drops his hammer and runs over to pull open the window. Jim clambers in, then sticks a hand out to help Claire in as well. Toby peeks out the open window to see Blinky standing on the grass outside, waving two hands at Toby and also grinning.

“Tobes!” Jim exclaims, grin growing even wider.

“Jimbo!” Toby echoes. He can’t muster as much enthusiasm as his best friend, even though he’s thrilled to see him. Jim grabs him in a tight hug, lifting him off his feet and laughing. Toby can’t help but laugh too. This is real, Jim is finally home. “What are you doing here?”

“Turns out Merlin’s info was super out of date,” says Claire. Jim puts Toby down, and she goes in for a hug as well, letting Jim greet Aaarrrgghh!!! jovially. “There used to be a Heartstone in New Jersey, but it’s not there anymore. So we came back.”

“We’ll figure something out,” Jim says before Toby can ask. “Maybe one of your new wizard friends would know better than Merlin. I guess that’s what happens when you’re asleep for centuries.”

“Always doubted him,” Toby grumbles. He bets Mort would know better, and maybe Mort could figure out a way to keep them here, with Toby, home for good. Maybe he’s selfish, but Toby wants Jim to stay with him.

“What about you?” Claire asks. “How are you?”

Toby opens his mouth to reply, then realises he doesn’t know what to say. Jim and Claire don’t _know_. It’s not really a conversation to have over the phone, that one of your friends was killed. He doesn’t even know where to begin. Jim, always attuned to Toby even after months apart, picks up on his mood and his brow furrows.

“Is everything okay?” he prods. “New developments with the Knight thing?”

Toby sighs. “Yeah. I think this is a conversation for everyone. Head downstairs. I’ll call the others and get them to come over.”

Jim and Claire exchange worried looks, but they both nod and leave the room. Aaarrrgghh!!! watches Toby curiously, and Toby jerks his head to the door with a weak smile.

“Go say hi to Blinky before everything gets sad again,” he says.

Aaarrrgghh!!! offers him a fist-bump, which Toby returns with less gusto than usual, and the troll also leaves the room, ducking and turning awkwardly to get through the door. Toby really needs to invest in a bigger door.

He tugs out his phone and opens it to the group chat he’s now glad he insisted on making, what feels like a lifetime ago. The latest text on it is from Krel – something about picking dinner because he was the one Ikram and Nimue were currently tormenting – and it makes Toby’s heart hurt. He takes a deep breath and texts the others to come over ASAP to explain things to Jim. Steve gets back almost immediately – Toby knows he wasn’t sleeping either, because if anyone else is plagued by nightmares and guilt, it’s Steve – to ask if Jim knows about Krel.

_not exactly a phone conversation dude no_, Toby texts back. He waits for the others to either like his message or reply, trying to figure out what they’re going to say. This isn’t a conversation he ever imagined having. Maybe he should have, but he just didn’t truly entertain the idea that one of them could die until it happened. He pockets his phone and walks downstairs. Blinky greets him with a third hug, somehow comfortable despite his body being entirely made of stone.

“Tobias! Good to see you!” he exclaims.

“Hey, Blinky,” says Toby as the troll releases him. “It’s good to have you guys back.”

He glances around unsurely. No wrinkly old wizard pops out from behind the couch or anything, but with wizards you can never be so sure. Toby’s been on both sides of spells that hide people in some way, shape, or form. He’s not sure why Merlin would be hanging around invisible, but he couldn’t really know for sure.

“Merlin’s not here?” he prompts.

“Nope,” says Jim, nose crinkling. “Wasn’t planning to ruin the reunion with him, don’t worry.”

“Good,” says Toby. Unless Merlin followed them of his own volition, they’re safe. Toby doesn’t really trust him, still, and isn’t sure he ever will.

It takes several minutes for everyone to arrive. Seamus walks in first, yawning and still in pyjamas, dark bruises and a still-healing cut peeking out from under his messy hair. He rubs his eyes and blinks at Jim, then his brow furrows and he shakes his head.

“Oh, you weren’t kidding about the troll thing,” he says.

“Seamus?” says Jim in surprise.

“Oh, right, surprise,” says Toby. “Seamus is a wizard now.”

“Always been a wizard,” Seamus reminds him.

“Huh,” says Jim. “That’s… unexpected.”

Steve and Eli arrive with Mort and Douxie. Claire and Jim both wince at the sight of Steve on crutches and the blue cast around his lower leg. Mort waves a hand in greeting, careful not to dislodge Archie, perched on his shoulder. Douxie still looks half-asleep, to the point that he tries to wave his right arm – the one in the sling – and fails miserably. Eli gapes at Jim – right, because this would be the first time Eli had ever seen Jim as a troll. Ikram and Nimue trail in after them. Ikram scans the room with a scowl, but she doesn’t say anything so Toby can only assume she doesn’t disapprove too much.

“Guess that’s everyone,” mumbles Toby. He sits on the couch next to Jim and Claire. Aaarrrgghh!!! rests a hand on the couch arm and smiles sadly at him, reassuring as much as he can. Jim frowns and looks around.

“We’re missing Krel,” he says. Toby was expecting that, but he flinches anyway. Steve’s hands tighten into fists on his thighs. Seamus looks away. Eli sniffles pitifully. Jim’s eyes widen and he shakes his head. “Guys, where’s Krel?”

Toby should explain, but he – can’t. His words catch in his throat and he moves his mouth soundlessly. Mort takes over yet again, gentle and quiet. “Krel was killed a few days ago.”

The room falls silent. Claire sucks in a breath and covers her mouth in horror. Jim, in contrast, lets out a slow, shaky breath, then raises a hand to his face and drags it downward. Blinky bows his head.

“No,” says Jim weakly. “That – that can’t be right.”

“What happened?” asks Claire.

“We got attacked. Magic was out. Krel tried to fight, but I guess he lost.” Seamus tugs his knees up to his chest. “He shouldn’t have tried to fight.”

Jim buries his face in his hands for a moment, then slams a fist down on the arm of the couch. “I should have _been here_!”

“Jim,” says Claire hesitantly.

“I should have come back when you first told me about the Knights,” Jim cries, lips pulled back in an angry snarl. It looks scary on his face, now that he’s a troll, with his sharp canines bared and his nose scrunched. “I could have saved him! I’m the Trollhunter, I’m supposed to protect people.”

“Maybe you could have saved him,” says Mort. “Or maybe you would have gotten killed, too. There’s no use in what ifs and could haves. Blaming yourself does no one any good.”

“Our new wizard friend is right,” says Blinky. “It does not do to dwell on what might have been. We are here now.”

“Now is too late,” mutters Jim. He shakes his head. “Alright. What’s the plan with the Knights, then?”

“There’s only one Knight left,” says Ikram. “The Red Knight. The most dangerous of us all, and almost certainly to one that organised the attack on the shop. We must not be caught off guard. We also have his master to worry about.”

“Mordred,” Seamus supplies. Mort glares at him. “Okay, fine, we don’t know it’s Mordred, but all evidence points to Mordred.”

“The Mordred I met was not an unkind soul,” says Blinky.

“Wait,” says Toby. Mort, too, looks at him in alarm. “You _knew_ Mordred?”

“Briefly, very briefly.” Blinky crosses all four arms. “He didn’t seem the type to want to destroy the world.”

“There, you see?” says Mort. “On the bright side – if we can even call it that – this mystery wizard has no easy way of finding and accessing the formstone.”

“Sorry, the what?” asks Claire.

“Long story,” says Toby. “Basically, if the wizard gets his hands on the formstone and absorbs its power, boom, game over, so long, planet Earth.”

“Krel could have found it because of his connection to Gaylen’s core, which was made from the formstone,” says Mort softly. “Without Krel – well, it would take ancient magicks even I don’t know, but to assume it’s safe would be folly. We must be on guard.”

“And so we will, Master Wizard,” says Blinky. “Forgive me. I do not know your name.”

“Introductions, yes.” Mort manages a weak smile and nods. “Mort Penn, at your service. Beside me is my nephew, Douxie. Pretending to be asleep on Douxie’s lap is his familiar, Archie. Over there you have Ikram and Nimue, and beside Steve is Seamus. I presume you know Toby and Steve both, and perhaps the small one whose name I don’t yet know.”

Eli raises a hand awkwardly. “Uh, I’m Eli. But Blinky knows me too.”

“I am not pretending, I am sleeping,” Archie adds, which just proves that he was pretending.

“Indeed I do know young master Eli,” agrees Blinky. “Blinkous Galadrigal. A true pleasure, despite the grim circumstances.”

“The pleasure is mine,” says Mort. Toby decides they’re going to get along well, especially because they seem to have equal disdain for Merlin. He expects their friendship will result in a level of unparalleled dadding that he isn’t sure will be a good thing.

Steve tries and fails to hide a yawn. Seamus, beside him, is already starting to nod off. He jerks upwards and rubs his eyes.

“It’s late,” says Ikram. “We can discuss this more tomorrow. For now, I think we all need rest.”

Douxie doesn’t even try to hide his yawn. “Yep. Sleep is good.”

“We’ll be on our way for now,” says Mort. He focuses his eyes on Toby. “Get some rest, as well.”

“I will,” Toby says.

He watches as the others leave. Steve meets his eyes with a silent question – if Toby asked him to stay, to help explain things, to be moral support, he would. It’s almost weird. Even a couple of months ago, if anyone had told Toby that Steve would be one of his staunchest allies and closest friends, Toby would have laughed in their faces. Now he knows better. He shakes his head, and Steve nods and crutches out the front door. Jim rests a hand on his shoulder.

“How are you holding up?” he asks, once the room is cleared and the sound of Mort’s truck is gone.

“I’m… fine,” says Toby. He is, really, or at least as fine as he can be. He’s not falling apart like Steve is after losing Krel and Aja the same day, at least. He’s dealt with death before. He’s fine. “It’s just – hard. You don’t ever think one of your friends is gonna die.”

“No, you don’t,” Jim murmurs. He pulls Toby into another hug; the armour isn’t exactly comfortable but Toby’s just happy to have his best friend there with him again. “It shouldn’t have happened.”

“I thought he was safe,” Toby admits. “He – we thought they wanted him alive, to find the formstone, but we were wrong. And I thought – Morando was almost impossible to kill when he had Gaylen’s core, I thought it’d be the same thing with Krel. I was _so sure_. I should have known better.”

“You couldn’t have known, Tobes.” Jim’s grip on him adjusts and tightens. “It’s not your fault.”

It sure feels like it. Toby hadn’t been that injured. Sure, his weapon didn’t work, but he could have found something. Krel’s serrator, maybe, or – or something. He could have fought with Krel, he could have protected him. If he’d just been there – he could have gotten Krel out. He could have done _something_. Instead, Krel died, alone, and if the Knight was to be trusted in his gloating, begging for someone to save him.

Claire joins the hug, then Blinky’s four arms wrap around all three of them. Aaarrrgghh!!! is the last to join the hug, enveloping the entire group and holding them close. Toby relishes in the moment, his Trollhunting friends all back together at last, all safe and here and alive.

“We’re here now,” Jim says. “We won’t let this happen again.”

Toby swallows and closes his eyes. “I hope you’re right.”

Jim and the others end up staying at Toby’s house, if only because Jim’s house is packed with babies and there’s not really room for them there. Toby has no doubt they could have made it work – Dr. L would have ensured it – but it’s easiest for them to just sleepover. It’s good for Toby’s nerves, too, to be able to glance over and see Jim sleeping on the floor next to him. Toby gets caught up on what all happened during their – surprisingly short – trip to New Jersey. Apparently they didn’t face too much trouble, beyond that one weird armoured guy Toby saw them fighting a few weeks ago, or maybe a lifetime ago with all that’s happened in Arcadia since. Toby’s glad his friends had it easier than he has.

The next morning, the others come back over to Toby’s house to try to hash out a more certain plan. Much to both Blinky and Mort’s chagrin, they decide they have to bring Merlin into this. Toby doesn’t trust the old wizard in the least, but he’ll probably be a valuable ally. Probably.

It’s immediately evident just how much Mort hates Merlin. His face falls into an instantaneous scowl as soon as the other wizard walks in. Blinky’s does, too, which is more proof that maybe they should start a club about how much they don’t like Merlin. Toby doesn’t even know where Mort’s hatred of him has come from, but he can’t exactly disagree with it. Merlin is kind of a huge jerk.

“Tobias,” Merlin greets. “Aaarrrgghh!!!, isn’t it? Good to see you both again.”

“Merlin,” Toby says back. Archie glowers at Merlin and leaps onto Toby’s legs, curling up to either sleep or just be more comfortable.

“You’re taller than I imagined,” says Steve suspiciously. “And your beard is a lot shorter. And I thought you’d be wearing, like, robes and stuff.”

“Definitely old enough, though,” mutters Seamus; he fiddles awkwardly with the amulet Mort made him a few days ago. They all have one now – armour stored in an amulet, activated by bringing it to their chests and pressing down. Mort said it was so they would always be protected, even when they weren’t expecting an attack. None of them mention that Krel was in armour when he died.

“So cool,” whispers Eli, who Toby hasn’t gotten around to giving the full story to so can be forgiven for thinking Merlin is cool.

They all make themselves at home in the living room. Nana cheerfully brings them cookies. Toby’s told her everything that’s been going on – she’d even offered to help, but Toby doubts his super old grandmother would be much help in this whole thing.

“Alright,” says Mort. “Very, very quick recap. A very powerful wizard has been sending knights after Toby, Krel, and Steve for the past several weeks, and we’ve figured out that he’s almost certainly after the Earth’s formstone. I presume you know what that is.”

“I do,” confirms Merlin. “This is not good news. We mustn’t let this wizard access the formstone, or certain doom will ensue.”

“Tell us something we don’t know,” says Toby.

“Do you have any ideas how to stop him?” Jim prompts.

Merlin leans back and crosses his arms. “Ideally, we would get to the formstone before him.”

“That won’t be possible,” says Mort, eyes narrowing. “Not without Krel.”

Merlin harrumphs. “Well, that is a pesky situation indeed. Perhaps we can find another way.”

“There are almost certainly no safe ways to find the formstone,” says Mort. “Perhaps it is better left unfound, regardless. The less people have that information – in this case, zero people – the less likely our enemy can get it.”

“At least there’s only one Knight left,” Seamus offers. “Since Ikram’s on our side and Aja decapitated the other.”

“Sorry, Aja _what_?” says Jim, eyebrows shooting up.

Steve’s lips twist into a frown. “He killed Krel. He deserved worse.”

“I will be more than happy to lend my help in protecting you from the remaining Knight,” Merlin says.

Seamus leans forward. “Do you have any idea who their master could be?”

Merlin shakes his head. “I’m afraid I don’t know many modern wizards. If it’s not a modern wizard… well, Morgana is sealed away. Perhaps Mordred?”

“Mordred is long dead,” Mort cuts in with a scowl.

Merlin makes eye-contact with him and raises an eyebrow. “You can never be so sure about that.”

“We need a plan,” cuts in Ikram. “The Red Knight will be back, and we must be ready.”

“We should find the Red Knight before he finds us,” says Steve. He punches one fist into the palm of his other hand. “If we work together like we did with the Black Knight, we can definitely beat him.”

“We need to plan first,” Jim says. “We have to make sure no one will get hurt.”

“The sooner we strike, the sooner we don’t have to worry about the Knights anymore,” Steve shoots back.

“Rushing into things is just going to get another one of us killed,” Jim snaps.

Steve glowers. “Fine. Whatever.”

“Whatever happens,” Seamus says quietly, “we have to avenge Krel.”

“I… kind of thought you didn’t like him,” Claire admits hesitantly.

Seamus flinches and shakes his head. “I – he was my friend. One of my best friends. I – should have befriended him sooner, but I was an idiot and I didn’t and now he’s gone. I won’t let his death be in vain.”

“We won’t,” agrees Jim solemnly.

“Perhaps I can whip up a few elixirs–”

“No!” Toby exclaims, lurching forward until Archie digs his claws in and glares. He leans back against the couch again. “No more elixirs.”

“Who calls them elixirs anymore?” Mort grumbles.

“Last time you made an elixir, you turned Jim into a troll,” Toby says. Eli’s eyebrows shoot up.

“A necessary evil,” says Merlin, “for Jim to defeat Gunmar and Morgana. He was injured enough as is. Imagine if he’d been merely human.”

“_He_ is right here,” Jim cuts in.

“Turning someone into a troll is kind of messed up, man,” says Seamus.

“Kind of?” Douxie mutters dubiously.

“Elixir bad,” Aaarrrgghh!!! rumbles helpfully.

“Can we not be discussing this?” says Jim. “We should be making a plan. The Red Knight. Could be here any day.”

“Jim’s right,” Toby says. “Every time we don’t have a plan, things go really badly, but every time we’ve actually made a plan, it’s succeeded.”

“Knock on wood,” grumbles Seamus.

“What can we do that we haven’t been doing already?” Steve shoots to his feet with his exclamation. He shouldn’t be putting weight on his leg yet, but he doesn’t sit back down. Toby should have been paying more attention to him throughout the conversation – a blow-up like this is probably a long time coming. “We _had_ a plan! Stick together. Stay at Mort’s or at least behind a ward. Guess what? We stuck together. We were in the shop. Krel still got killed. We did everything right, and _Krel still got killed_!”

Toby swallows. Jim shakes his head. “Then we make a better plan, no one will die–”

“_Krel’s already dead_!” Steve’s shout almost echoes in the ensuing silence; he doesn’t even put up a pretence of stopping the tears that drip down his cheeks. Jim shrinks back, mouth moving like he might apologise. Toby knows his best friend means well – is right, even – but some part of him sees Steve’s point too.

“I know how you feel,” starts Jim, which is the exact wrong thing to say to Steve right now. His eyes and hands light up golden, but Toby doesn’t think he even means to do it. Jim and Claire both flinch back – the resemblance to Morgana in Steve’s magic is starkly evident.

“How could you possibly know how I feel!?” Steve roars. There’s something intimidating about the way gold flares in arcs from his clenched hands, something – not like Steve, or maybe like the Steve they once knew, before the Creepslayerz and Aja and everything that’s happened. “He was my little brother! Don’t tell me you understand, because you _don’t_!”

Jim raises his hands in surrender. “Steve, I didn’t mean – I’ve lost people too, Draal was like a big brother to me, so I – I get it. It hurts.”

Steve’s chin trembles and he continues to glare. His fists are clenched so tightly Toby wonders if his nails are drawing blood. Seamus grabs Steve’s elbow and tugs him gently. “Sit down. You’ll mess up your leg.”

The gold fades. Steve sits and angrily wipes his cheeks. Seamus wraps an arm around him and Steve leans into him, eye closed. Part of Toby almost wants to walk over and join them, help comfort his friend after all they’ve been through together. Archie leaps down and makes his way over to sit on Steve instead, purring comfortingly.

“We can’t change what happened,” says Mort softly. “If I could invent time-travel today and change things I would. But Jim is correct. We need a plan, something better than before.”

Blinky links his hands together in front of them. “All enemies have weaknesses, and so must this Knight of ours. If we can figure it out and use it against him, we may be able to win.”

Steve crosses his arms, finally opening his eyes again and still glaring, still angry. “I say we do the same thing we did with the Black Knight. Lure him out and let Aja decapitate him.”

Mort rubs his forehead. “We need information, Steve, unless you have a spell to get information out of a dead man, we need the Red Knight alive.”

“If we _can_ lure him out and capture him, that would be our best bet,” Jim says.

“The Red Knight is not stupid,” says Ikram. “He will have heard what happened to his compatriot. He won’t be lured out so easily. I wouldn’t be shocked if the next time we see him is when his master finally makes his first attack.”

“So, what, we wait till the wizard starts his evil plan?” Toby demands. “That went kinda _really bad_ with Morgana!”

“We still won,” Merlin offers. “Sometimes it is best to be able to see an enemy’s plan before you counter-attack.”

“That is terrible advice,” says Mort.

“This is going nowhere,” Nimue groans. She leans forward, arms on her knees. “The Trollhunter is right that we can’t rush into things. Steve and Toby are right that we can’t wait.”

“By the time our mystery wizard makes his first move, it may very well be too late,” says Blinky. “We have powerful wizards on our side, and many of them. Is there not a spell the six of you can create to locate the Red Knight?”

Mort furrows his eyebrows. “Hm.”

“Advanced magicks, perhaps,” says Merlin carefully. “It will take some time. Perhaps too much time.”

“Not with all of you working together!” Toby points out. “You’re Merlin, Mort is – Mort, that also speaks for itself. Nimue’s super strong, and Douxie and Steve both trained under Mort. And I’m sure Seamus is just as good.”

“And what do you suppose we do when we find him?” prompts Ikram.

“Go in guns blazing and capture him,” says Seamus. “We’ll have the advantage of numbers and surprise.”

“We can plan in more detail when we know where to find him,” Jim cuts in. “For now… I think we’ve got a start. We can do this.”

“For Krel,” Steve says, voice hoarse.

Toby and Seamus exchange looks and nod. Eli sniffles and adjusts his glasses. Mort presses his lips into a grim line.

“For Krel,” he echoes.

With Mort’s somewhat reluctant permission, the group of teenagers goes out for milkshakes after their somewhat successful planning session. Jim is content under an extra-large umbrella that protects him from the sun. He looks incredibly pleased to be walking around in the daytime at all – Toby guesses they tried to avoid aboveground during the day on their trip to and from New Jersey. It helps that it’s a cloudy day – it looks like it might start raining later, which isn’t uncommon for Arcadia in the summertime. Part of Toby hopes it does. It’s been cheerfully sunny for the past few days, and honestly, Toby kind of wishes the weather would get with the program and realise now isn’t the time for sunshine and days at the pool.

They crowd around the largest table at Benoit’s. Despite the sugar, they’re all still in a melancholy mood. Toby feels almost guilty enjoying milkshakes at a time like this. Seamus stirs his with his straw, morosely taking sips every few moments.

“Krel always liked their cappuccino milkshakes for some reason,” Steve mumbles.

“They’re awful,” says Seamus. “He had terrible taste.”

Eli frowns. “Uh, Seamus, you’re drinking a cappuccino shake.”

“It’s for Krel, okay?” Seamus retorts, tugging his milkshake closer. “Don’t judge me.”

There’s something almost sweet about that. Toby knows the two of them had gotten close before Krel’s death, closer than Toby had ever expected them to, what with their initial impressions going… not so smoothly.

“I feel like we’ve missed so much,” says Claire. “I mean, we’ve heard about a lot of it from Toby, but – how did we manage to miss aliens?”

“Akiridions,” Steve corrects scathingly. “The term alien is rude.”

Claire winces. “Sorry. Akiridions.”

“You left, like, right before I found out,” Toby says. “Eli wanted to trap them.”

“_What_?” Steve splutters.

Eli laughs awkwardly. “Look, all I had to go off of when it came to extra-terrestrial life forms was _Earth Invaders_, which isn’t a very positive depiction.”

“Point,” concedes Steve, leaning back in his seat and taking a long sip of his chocolate milkshake.

“I still can’t believe I didn’t notice anything,” says Jim. “I mean, it’s kind of obvious in retrospect.”

“Yeah, kinda,” agrees Toby.

“Nothing this exciting happened on our trip to New Jersey and back,” says Claire.

“Be glad,” mutters Steve.

Toby has to agree. He tries to tell himself that Krel would rather he remember the good times than dwell on his death, and there have been good times in this whole adventure. Krel would want them to look back on him and smile. Toby wishes he could summon the ability to actually smile. He takes another sip of his milkshake. The chocolate peanut butter tastes far too happy for his mood. Maybe that’s part of why Seamus got a flavour he hates. Why did they even go out for milkshakes? In some ways, it’s only making Toby’s mood worse.

He glances up briefly in time to see Claire’s jaw drop. Jim gasps and rubs his eyes and does a wide-eyed double-take. Toby follows their gaze and his breath catches in his throat. Surely he’s hallucinating. Someone slipped alcohol in his milkshake, or maybe it’s his restless sleep catching up with him at last. How else would he see Krel – human-looking, wrapped in bandages, very, very alive – running towards them from across the street? But the apparition grows closer, and Toby knows when Douxie makes a soft, shocked sound that he’s not the only one who sees Krel stumbling up to them. So either they’re all hallucinating, or it’s really Krel.

Seamus stands, eyes wide, one hand clutching the edge of the table. Eli’s lower lip trembles like he might start crying. Krel – can it really be Krel? – skids to a stop in front of them and waves his hands wildly, as if trying to convey something without words until he finally finds his voice.

“Krel?” Steve says faintly, already starting to push himself to his feet as well.

“I know who it is,” Krel blurts. Toby’s heart lurches at the sound of his friend’s voice, familiar and so breathtakingly relieving to hear, standing in front of them injured but alive. Then Krel’s actual sentence catches up with him.

“What?” he says. He’s still trying to process and convince himself that Krel’s standing there. “Krel – how are you – you’re not dead?”

Krel shakes his head. “No time to explain. I know who the Knights’ master is!”


	20. The Road Home

Krel awakens to the sound of the forest around him. He doesn’t open his eyes immediately, instead trying to put together why it sounds like he’s outside. Those weird Earth insects are chirping still, and every now and then he hears a faint hooting sound that sets him on edge. He can hear someone nearby, but he doesn’t know who. Finally, he forces himself to painfully sit up and open his eyes. He’s in less pain than he was before. He hopes that’s a good sign.

The good news is, he doesn’t think he’s been captured again. He seems to be in some sort of makeshift shelter. A few feet away, there’s what looks to be a troll humming to themself and doing something Krel can’t see.

“Um, hello?” he says. His voice comes out hoarse and weak.

The troll spins around. She – at least, Krel thinks she’s a she – brightens immediately. Her dark brown hair is pulled up in a messy ponytail above her faintly green face. She’s smiling kindly. “Welcome back! I hope you’re somewhat comfortable. Those were some bad burns you had.”

“I… am, thank you,” Krel says. He takes a short moment to glance at himself – a good portion of his body has been wrapped in bandages, including both of his left arms. When he spoke, he could feel the gauze and tape on the left side of his face, for the burns he knows are there.

The troll lumbers to the edge of the shelter. “Mugg! He’s awake!”

She then walks back inside and Krel hears the sound of water being poured. She turns and offers him a cup. Krel takes it gratefully, lifting it to his lips and letting the water pour down his parched throat. It’s cool and refreshing, and Krel never knew until now how much he took something like water for granted.

“Don’t drink too fast, child,” says the troll. “I’m Ungwella, by the way. My wife should be here shortly, her name’s Mugg.”

“I’m Krel,” he says. “You’re… trolls?”

She nods. “Yep. You’re not, though. Not human, either.”

“No,” Krel confirms. “I’m an Akiridion – I’m from a different planet.”

“What’s this about a different planet?” Another troll – Mugg, presumably – walks in, taller and thinner with deep blue skin and black hair.

“Our mystery kid isn’t from Earth,” says Ungwella. “Never would have imagined it. Extra-terrestrials. Amazing.”

“I thought all the trolls went to, uh, New Jersey,” Krel says.

“We like it here,” says Mugg. “Besides, travelling is no good for the little ones.”

“You have kids?”

“Oh, goodness no!” Ungwella laughs. She gestures outside. “We have succulents.”

Krel does not know what that means, but he decides against asking for the time being. He adjusts to a more comfortable sitting position and takes another sip of water, slower this time.

“How long was I out?” he asks warily. He only vaguely remembers passing out in the first place, but he knows it wasn’t night when he did.

“We’re not entirely sure,” says Mugg. “Ungwella stumbled across you last night, so at least a day.”

Longer than a day, then. Krel winces. It doesn’t pull at his wounds as badly as it once would have. He gently prods the gauze, but Ungwella sends him a disapproving look and he lowers his hands.

“Quite the injuries you had,” she says. “Now, we don’t know the first thing about your kind, but I do know a thing or two about burns. Mugg here can get so reckless with the sunlight.”

“I’m not that bad,” Mugg grumbles.

“We did what we could for you,” says Ungwella. “Is there anyone on this planet that can help you? Do you have a way to get home?”

“Home,” Krel repeats. His eyes widen and he starts to push himself to his feet. “Home, I need to get home! My friends are in danger, I have to get to them!”

“Woah, woah, slow down, kiddo.” Ungwella gently makes him sit back down. “We’ll get you home. The human city?”

“Yes, Arcadia,” Krel says.

“Breakfast first,” says Mugg. “You must be famished. Now, we don’t know what your kind eats, but I think Ungwella tried to make something human-friendly. We figured you were maybe some sort of weird type of human.”

Ungwella happily presents him with a bowl of tan glop and a spoon. It doesn’t look particularly appetising, but Krel eats it anyway. It doesn’t taste appetising either, but it was really nice of them to go out of their way to make him breakfast. Ungwella’s watchfulness makes him eat at a normal pace, as much as he wants to shovel the food down as quickly as possible. He took food for granted too, really. After all this, he doesn’t think he’ll take anything for granted again.

“If I may,” says Ungwella. “What happened? No child should ever endure injuries like yours.”

Krel takes another bite of the glop and thinks of how to explain it. “My friends and I were attacked. They lit the building on fire and blocked the magic so most of my friends couldn’t fight. I tried to fight the bad guys myself, but – I got knocked out and captured. I escaped, but – I didn’t make it very far before passing out.”

“You poor thing,” mumbles Mugg.

Krel finishes the last of the glop. Ungwella takes the bowl from him and gives him a fond smile.

“Do you feel up to walking, little one?” she asks.

“Yes,” says Krel. He has to be. He has to get home quickly. He stands and wavers in place for a few seconds. Mugg reaches out as if to catch him, but he steadies himself and takes a deep breath. “I have to get home.”

“Alright,” says Mugg. “We’ll walk with you. The night’s still quite young, so we should be able to get you most of the way and still get back to our shelter before sunrise.”

“Thank you,” Krel says. “And for breakfast. And taking care of my injuries.”

“Oh, of course, child,” says Ungwella. “Alright, then, we best get a move on.”

Krel follows them out of the shelter. He glances up at the sky – the stars are concealed by clouds, leaving the only real light source himself and specks of light he thinks have a name but he’s not sure. Mugg catches him looking.

“Fireflies,” she says. “Pretty, aren’t they? I guess they don’t have those on your planet.”

“Everything glows on my planet,” Krel says.

“I did notice you glowing,” says Ungwella. “There are some races of troll that glow. Not us, obviously. But some.”

“Do you know much about our kind?” Mugg asks.

Krel shakes his head. “No. I’ve only ever met three trolls, and one of them – well, it’s complicated.”

“Changeling?” guesses Mugg.

“Uh, no?” Krel says unsurely. “What’s a changeling?”

“A changeling – well, I think that has become even more complicated now,” admits Ungwella. “In the past, a changeling was a type of troll that could transform into a human as long as their human familiar remained alive and well.”

“Familiar?” Krel repeats. “Like Archie? He’s Douxie’s familiar. He’s a cat.”

“Not exactly,” says Ungwella. “From what little I know, the familiars have been returned from the Darklands, and now the changelings remain in their troll form.”

“Well, I don’t think Jim is a changeling,” says Krel.

“The Trollhunter?” Mugg sighs. “So you’re one of the Trollhunter’s friends, then. That definitely explains the sort of trouble you’ve gotten into.”

Krel laughs weakly. “Yeah, well… it’s a mess.”

“We trolls are no stranger to war,” says Ungwella grimly. “You’ve heard, I’m sure, of the Battle of Killahead Bridge?”

Krel has very much not heard of the Battle of Killahead Bridge. He shakes his head.

“It was centuries ago,” says Mugg. “Well, the first one was. I was still a child, younger than you.”

“As was I,” says Ungwella. “Well, you remember the Eternal Night.”

“Yes, that I remember,” says Krel. “The whole town was invaded by – evil trolls, I guess?”

“Gumm-Gumms,” Ungwella corrects. Krel’s heard that term from Toby before, but he never knew it referred to the evil trolls that had attacked the day of the Battle of the Bands. “Well, before they escaped, they had been trapped in a place called the Darklands. The first Battle of Killahead Bridge was when they were banished there – by the first Trollhunter, Deya the Deliverer. She defeated Gunmar, banished him and his armies to the Darklands, and Trollhunters have kept us safe ever since.”

“Well, until your Jim came along and set Gunmar free,” says Mugg. Ungwella elbows her. “But he also defeated Gunmar, so he can be forgiven.”

“What’s a Gunmar?” Krel asks.

“Gunmar was the fearsome warlord of the Gumm-Gumm army,” says Ungwella. “I never saw him in person, mind, but – well, we grew up with stories of his terror.”

“You can understand the panic it caused when he was freed,” says Mugg.

“Yeah,” says Krel. “I mean – we never had anything like that on Akiridion-5. But I can imagine.”

“Tell us a little about your home, Krel,” prompts Ungwella.

“Earth is my home,” he says, glancing around at the trees and smiling. “There’s no place like it. But Akiridion-5 is pretty cool too. We’ve been mostly peaceful, at least before the coup. I guess the only thing we have that compares to your Killahead would be the fight between Seklos and Gaylen.”

Mugg hums in interest. “Seklos and Gaylen?”

Krel nods. “Gaylen was a celestial – he was actually from Earth, technically – who created Akiridion-5. Akiridions had previously been sort of planet-hopping, because they couldn’t really find a planet to sustain their way of life. It’s not a pretty picture, so it gets glossed over a lot. Anyway, Gaylen created Akiridion-5 and Akridions could finally permanently settle down somewhere. But Gaylen grew too strong – overcome by his power, they say.”

He falls silent for a moment, wrapping his arms around himself and feeling the hum of his core, Gaylen’s core, integrated and just as powerful, even if Krel doesn’t know how to use all the powers. He shakes his thoughts away.

“So a royal Akiridion, Seklos, used her own life-core to kill him,” he finishes the story. “The current royal house of Akiridon-5 is apparently descended from both of them.”

He purposefully leaves out the fact that he’s one of the royals – that he’s heir to a legacy of destruction and power-hungry malice. The idea makes him feel cold even in the warm summer air.

“Incredible,” says Ungwella.

“So, trolls really can’t go in sunlight?” Krel asks. He isn’t really in the mood to talk about his – what? Predecessor? – right now, not after all the trouble being Gaylen’s heir has brought him.

“Only Stalklings,” says Mugg. “The rest of us turn to stone. It’s quite unfortunate, really.”

“Mugg is just unusually fond of the daytime,” Ungwella teases.

“Stalkling,” Krel repeats. “I’ve heard that word before from Toby.”

“Scary things, Stalklings,” says Ungwella. “Pray one never sets its sights on you. You’re a dead man walking if they do.”

Krel shudders. Well, at least now he knows what types of troll to avoid – Stalklings and Gumm-Gumms. Granted, he doesn’t know how to identify either, but he’ll call it a work in progress. The more he learns about the life-beings of his new world the more he wants to know.

“What does a Trollhunter do, exactly?” asks Krel. He remembers the spiel Can-in-jars – no, Kanjigar, right? – made in his parents’ memories, but it wasn’t very detailed.

“The Trollhunter protects us,” says Mugg. “Or they’re supposed to, anyway. We’ve had – better Trollhunters than others. The human – or, well, no longer human Trollhunter has admittedly been one of the good ones, despite a few bumps.”

“Jim’s pretty cool,” says Krel. “I don’t know him that well, but he’s Toby’s best friend, and that means he’s pretty cool.”

“So you live here now?” asks Ungwella.

Krel nods. “My sister and I got stuck here for a while, but… I made a lot of friends and I like it here, so I stayed. Earth is a nice planet. It’s more… I don’t know, it’s more alive than Akiridion-5.”

He’s not sure if alive is the right word, but here in the forest, surrounded by plant life and insects and birds, this planet definitely feels more alive than Akiridion-5’s technological wonders. Akridion-5 doesn’t even _have_ any real form of native life. Gaylen created it, and the Akiridions brought everything else along with them. Earth has so much amazing life all around. Krel’s never seen anything like it, and he desperately wants to protect it.

“Well, we’re glad to have you,” says Mugg. “You seem like a real good kid, Krel.”

“Thanks,” says Krel awkwardly. He’s not entirely sure how to respond to that. Mugg laughs and reaches over to pat the uninjured side of his face, like his grandmama used to when he was little and he told her a story or did something she found cute.

Then Krel hears footsteps. He’s immediately on guard, and when he catches sight of the source – the Red Knight, why does it have to be the Red Knight? – he ducks behind Ungwella and prays his glow won’t give him away.

All three of them duck behind trees. Krel gulps and carefully peers around. The Red Knight approaches another man – old as Varvatos’s human form, dressed in dark armour and carrying a staff glowing green – and kneels.

“He escaped,” the Red Knight says gruffly. “He can’t have gotten far in his condition. I will retrieve him.”

“No need,” says the old wizard. “Return to Arcadia, kill Arthur’s little successor, but be careful. They’re plotting your demise. I’ve done all I can to delay them. We must strike before they can strike first.”

“But we need the boy to find the formstone!”

“Oh, he’ll come,” says the wizard. “These hero types, it’s so easy to get to them. One word of their friends and family in danger, and they’ll do whatever it takes to save them. Give up their humanity. Give up their lives. You name it.”

Krel tries not to breathe too loudly, lest they hear, but he almost thinks the wizard knows he’s listening. He needs to get home. His friends are in danger, but at least he knows they’re still alive. He has to make sure they stay that way.

“Understood,” says the Red Knight. “I won’t let you down again.”

“Yes,” says the wizard. “See that you don’t follow the same path as your brother… do keep your head.”

The wizard’s head turns. Krel ducks further behind the tree, holding his breath. All three of them listen closely to the footsteps and crunching leaves that follow, until finally Mugg says, “We’re clear.”

Krel breathes again, core buzzing hotly. That was close. Too close.

“That – that was Merlin,” says Ungwella hesitantly. Krel’s head snaps to face her. “The Merlin. He – I thought he was a good guy.”

“Merlin,” Krel mumbles. “Merlin! That’s the one Toby said turned Jim into a troll. He did not sound like a good guy to me.”

“He’s the one who did this to you?” Mugg asks faintly.

“Well, the Red and Black Knights,” says Krel. “But by his orders, I assume.”

Her face pulls into an angry snarl. Ungwella has to grab her arm to keep her from stomping off. Mugg tries to jerk away from her. “Let me go! I’m going to give that man a piece of my mind! Hurting a child! More than one child! Oh, when I’m through with him–”

“Mugg, love, calm down,” says Ungwella. “He’s far more powerful than you. Let’s focus on getting Krel home to his family, okay?”

She growls, but then glances at Krel and her face falls and she pulls him into a hug. “You poor dear.”

“I need to get home,” says Krel. “My friends – he’s after them – I have to warn them before they make the mistake of trusting Merlin.”

“We’ll get you home,” says Ungwella. She rests a hand on his shoulder. “Come on. We’ve got more walking to do.”

It’s probably several hours before they reach a place Krel vaguely recognises, although he still isn’t one hundred percent sure how long an Earth hour is. He crinkles his nose at the initials carved into the kissing tree, even as Mugg reacts more like Aja and lets out a little, “Aw.”

“The dawn will be here before long,” mumbles Ungwella.

“I know where I am now,” Krel says. “Thank you for taking me this far.”

“Are you sure, little one?” she asks. “I hate to leave you on your own.”

“We can take you the rest of the way and camp in the sewers until night comes again,” offers Mugg.

“It’s okay,” says Krel. “Go back home where you’ll be safe. I can make it from here. I’ve been here before.”

“If you’re certain,” says Ungwella. “Come visit us when you get the chance, child. That means you have to survive. Understand?”

Krel laughs. “Understand. I’ll come visit after this is over, and I’ll bring all my friends. We’ll all survive.”

“Good,” says Ungwella.

Mugg hugs him again. “We look forward to it. Be safe. If you need back-up, you know where to find us.”

“Thank you,” Krel says again. He waves to them as they leave, disappearing back into the forest, to safety, and a part of him is relieved. The less people involved in this mess, the less people who can get hurt. They’ll all survive. He has to believe that.

He takes off running, all the way back to Arcadia. Toby’s house first, he decides, because he needs to find his friends. He’s not paying a ton of attention, so it’s not surprising that he runs straight into someone and stumbles backwards.

“Krel?”

“Oh, it’s you,” Krel says in relief. Stuart continues to stare at him with an open mouth, before abruptly bursting into tears and pulling him into a too-tight hug. “Ow! Hey, hey, easy!”

“Oh, you’re alive!” Stuart exclaims. “Oh, thank Gaylen! You gave us a scare! We thought you were dead!”

“Yes, I heard,” manages Krel. “I’m kinda in a hurry though, I need to find my friends.”

“Of course, of course, want me to drive you?” Stuart offers, finally releasing Krel. He looks him up and down and winces. “Yikes, you’re in a right state. I’m definitely driving you. Hop in.”

Krel is grateful for Stuart, always showing up when they somehow need him. He’s missed spending time with the guy, but between all the running from Knights and the Gaylen's core thing, there hasn’t really been much time to say hi to anyone else who wasn’t involved.

“How are you alive?” Stuart asks.

“Uh, one part luck, one part Gaylen’s core,” Krel says. Stuart’s eyebrows shoot up. Krel winces. “Long story.”

“I saw your core with my own eyes,” says Stuart. “Was there for the funeral! Beautiful funeral, by the way, really beautiful, a fitting tribute.”

Krel is speechless for a moment. They... had a funeral? Aja thinks he’s dead? He isn’t sure what he expected. He should have known they would tell Aja. If they thought he died, if they thought they had his broken core, then of course they told Aja. Krel would have wanted them to. Unfortunately, he’s not dead, so Aja thinking he is just completely complicates his life.

“It was a decoy,” Krel says.

“Pretty good decoy to fool Aja,” remarks Stuart. “Well, I’m sure everyone will be thrilled that you’re alive! I sure am!”

“We have bigger things to worry about right now,” says Krel grimly. He doesn’t know how much – if any – the others filled Stuart in, but he continues as if his friend knows everything. Stuart is good with – what is the human term – going with the flood. “I’ve found out who the evil wizard is. He’s coming for the formstone!”

“I don’t entirely know what that means, but it sounds bad.” Stuart makes a sharp turn, and Krel grips the armrests of the seat to hold himself in place. “Don’t you worry, Krel, we’ll figure this out. Oh, hey, remind me where we’re going?”

That’s maybe something Krel should have said at the beginning. “Toby’s house. You know where that is?”

“Well, sure!” exclaims Stuart.

“Good,” says Krel, because he does not know Toby’s address. He doesn’t even know his own address.

Sure enough, Stuart pulls to a stop in front of Toby’s house. Krel is about to get out of the car, but a glance in the window stops him. Everyone is there, which would have been ideal, except everyone includes Merlin. Krel slams the door shut and buckles his seatbelt again.

“Never mind!” he exclaims. “My house, now! Quickly!”

“Uh, okay,” says Stuart unsurely. He veers out of the neighbourhood. Krel is pretty sure no one saw him, but he really hopes he’s right. The last thing he wants is for Merlin to attack his friends because Krel has made it back to Arcadia after all.

Stuart parks in front of the still-partially-destroyed mothership. They both walk inside. Krel finds himself wishing he had a front door. It wouldn’t do much good against an ancient, evil wizard, but he’d feel a bit safer locking it anyway.

“Krel?” Ricky exclaims as he walks in.

“Krel!” cries Lucy. They look so relieved to see him that Krel has to wonder how much emotion and thought they actually have, and if it’s even more than he ever gave them credit for. He lets them both hug him, thankfully less painfully than Stuart’s. “We thought you were dead!”

“It’s a long story,” says Krel. The Blanks release him, and they and Stuart follow him down into the ship. Krel has no idea where his cell phone is – destroyed in the fire or afterwards by the Knights, probably – so the ship’s systems will have to do. He’s relieved to find he has Toby’s number saved.

He calls the number and waits. It goes to the voice message box, so Krel tries again.

“Heyo, you’ve reached Tobias Domzalski, leave a message after the beep. BEEEP!” Toby’s voice rings out for the second time.

“Toby, I’m not dead and I know who the evil wizard is,” Krel says. “Pick up your phone!”

He groans and hangs up, then tries Steve. This is a bust as well. He’d try Seamus next but unfortunately Seamus's number was saved in his phone, not the mothership's still glitchy systems. He runs an agitated hand down the uninjured side of his face.

“Want me to try to call them?” Stuart suggests.

“You can try,” Krel says, but if they didn’t pick up for him – their supposedly dead friend – he doubts they’ll pick up for Stuart, who’s been known for calling about inconsequential things and inopportune times. He taps his fingers on his leg and tries to think of a solution. Okay, maybe he can track them. Once they leave Toby’s house, he can go to them and Merlin won’t be there. Hopefully. He sets to work initialising a tracking device honed on Toby’s phone.

While that loads, he walks over to grab a spare serrator, one of the ones he’d already set up with transduction because he knows himself well enough to expect to lose his at some point. Turning on the transduction effect is simultaneously a breath of fresh air and a wave of fresh agony. His still-healing burns sharply protest the shift, but the bandages stay, warped to fit his human form. He pulls his hair back and ties it in a loose pony-tail at his neck.

“Looking good, your highness,” says Stuart.

“None of that ‘your highness’, Stuart,” Krel says. “Here I am just Krel.”

And what a relief it is to be just Krel, even if just Krel still has the weight of a world on his shoulders. Stuart grins at him for a moment, then holds up his phone and shakes his head apologetically. “No response.”

“Figured,” he says. “Well, I’ll know when they leave Toby’s house, hopefully without Merlin. In the meantime, we need a plan.”

“A plan!” echoes Ricky. “Plan for your retirement at–”

“No, no, no, no,” Krel cuts in. “A real plan. Okay, think, Krel, think. How does a group of teenagers, a Knight, a university student, and a wizard beat a centuries-old evil wizard?”

“Quite the rag-tag team you’ve got there,” notes Stuart. “You can count me in! Probably Aja, too, if you call her. Oh, she’ll be thrilled!”

“No time to get Aja,” says Krel. He paces, arms crossed, trying to come up with something that might work. Merlin is after the formstone. Maybe… they need to get the formstone first. Hide it or something. Except he’s not sure they can move the formstone without destroying the planet. Part of him thinks no one should know where it is. Part of him thinks knowing would give the advantage.

“Alright,” he mutters. “I need to find the formstone.”

“Great,” says Stuart enthusiastically. “Where do we start looking?”

“I… don’t know.” Krel drops to the floor and sits cross-legged, glaring towards the loading screen hovering above the tracking device. Maybe the armour will help – wait, the device. He delves his hands into his pockets, then, to his relief, pulls out the device. He has no idea how it got there, why the Knight didn’t dispose of it, but he’s grateful nonetheless. He mumbles the words and is shot into the air as the armour forms around him. Stuart’s jaw drops. Krel lands on his feet. He can’t help but smile at his friend’s expression.

“This is incredible!” Stuart exclaims. He runs forward and lifts Krel’s arm, running a hand on the metal and giggling delightedly. “How long have you had this? Why haven’t I seen this before?”

“It’s new,” says Krel. “Uh, very long story short, I’m the heir of Gaylen–”

Stuart gasps. “Say no more! I mean, that doesn’t explain everything, but it explains a lot. That’s incredible, absolutely incredible. Alright, what’s the plan?”

“I find the formstone, because supposedly I can,” says Krel. “I don’t know how.”

“Maybe if you get close enough, you’ll sense it,” suggests Stuart. “Or maybe you can, like, meditate on it?”

“Meditation seemed to work for Steve,” Krel muses.

“Really? I never would have seen that going well for him.”

Krel sits again and closes his eyes. They don’t have meditation exactly on Akiridion-5, so he’s not _entirely_ sure how it works. Still, Steve said something about clearing his mind, so Krel’s going to try that and maybe focusing on the thought of finding the formstone. He knows it’s in Arcadia. He pictures the town in his mind, the way it lights up at night, the way it makes him feel at home even though he’s never seen anything like it in his whole life.

He opens his eyes. At first, it seems nothing has happened, but then he realises his glow seems brighter, and there’s a faint white line extending away from him.

“Lively,” he mumbles.

“Did it work?” Stuart asks.

“Can’t you see it?” Krel says, gesturing to the thin line. Stuart shakes his head. Huh. It must be a Gaylen thing, then. Krel still doesn’t know the extent of his own powers; the uncertainty scares him. He stands. “Come on. Follow me. We’ll walk.”

Following the line is easier, it turns out, from inside the mothership. As soon as he steps outside he realises that there are a lot more lines than just the one connected to him. They all seem to be going in the same direction, though, so he just follows the consensus. The closer they get to downtown, the more populated the area is, the brighter the world becomes. It’s kind of beautiful. He wonders if this is anything like the auras Steve can see.

He’s not even surprised when they end up in the canal, beneath the bridge Toby claims is always the final showdown. He should have guessed just from that.

Stuart leans on his knees, breathing heavily. “We there yet? Cause I can’t run much further, not as fit as I used to be.”

“We’re here.” Krel kneels, placing his hands to the ground. The formstone, hidden beneath layers of concrete, not as deep as Trollmarket but still concealed, hums and flares at his presence. It recognises him, and somewhere in his core he definitely recognises it.

“So… now what?”

Krel frowns. “I don’t – I don’t know.”

Before he can make a decision or even come up with the options to choose between, his tracking device buzzes. He pulls it out and presses the button to show the holographic map of Arcadia. It seems both Toby and Steve have moved, downtown by the looks of it. Krel hopes Merlin isn’t there.

“Now I go talk to my friends,” Krel says. Stuart helps him to his feet, but Krel doesn’t wait for him to follow. He takes off running. The armour flies off him as he runs and he catches the device and pockets it again. He skids to a stop the second he can see his friends, huddled around a table outside Benoit’s, and hides in the bushes.

He doesn’t see Merlin. He does see Jim, under an umbrella, and Claire and Eli. He’s kind of surprised to see them, but they need all the back-up they can get. He takes a deep breath, then starts running again. The others start slowly noticing him. Seamus stands. Krel skids to a stop in front of their table and tries, breathless, to convey what he’s learned with his hands. That’s not working. Oh, and now his friends look like they might cry.

“Krel?” Steve says faintly; he too is pushing himself to his feet.

“I know who it is,” Krel blurts. He realises that isn’t incredibly clear. His friends’ expressions are leaving him uneasy, but he gets it. To them, he just came back from the dead. He tries to reformulate in his head.

“What?” Toby says. His voice trembles alarmingly. “Krel – how are you – you’re not dead?”

Krel shakes his head, finally putting the words together. “No time to explain. I know who the Knights’ master is!”


	21. For the Glory of Merlin

Steve is pretty sure his lack of sleep is catching up with him. Maybe with all of them, because it kind of seems like he’s not the only one seeing this. Seeing… Krel. Is this some sort of – of trick? Illusion? Joint hallucination? There’s no way this is real, that Krel’s really standing in front of them, eyes wide and bright and undeniably alive. He wants it to be real. He’s desperate for it to be real.

Seamus is the first to break out of his shock.

“Krel!” he yells, launching forward and grabbing Krel in a desperate hug. Krel’s bandaged arms flail for a second before resting on his friend’s back. Toby joins the hug seconds later, followed by Eli and Douxie. Krel laughs.

“It’s good to see you guys, too,” he says.

Toby, Douxie, and Eli step back. Seamus holds onto Krel a few moments longer, eyes shut tight, but he also eventually pulls away. Steve still can’t believe it’s him – how can it be Krel? Steve found his core. Steve cradled his shattered remains in his hands, watched as Aja pieced them back together with trembling fingers. There’s no way. Still, he takes a step forward, then another, then hesitates, a breath away from knowing. Krel offers him a small smile, and Steve knows. He pulls Krel into his arms, curling a hand into his hair and holding the little brother he didn’t realise he had until it was too late close to him. He closes his eyes as tears trail down his cheeks. Krel’s _real_. He’s real and alive and here again, safe again.

“You’re alive,” he whispers in relief.

“I’m alive,” Krel agrees.

“I love you,” Steve says, because even if he’s bad at emotions he’s already lost Krel once without telling him and he can’t risk that again. “You’re like my little brother, and I love you.”

Krel’s grip on him tightens. “I love you, too.”

“Aw, this is so touching,” says Stuart’s voice. Part of Steve doesn’t want to let go, because at least right now he knows it isn’t a hallucination, that Krel’s actually here, but he moves away nonetheless and sits because he really does want to be able to get off the crutches sooner rather than later. “Isn’t it just the sweetest? I might cry.”

“How are you alive?” asks Toby. “Not that I’m not thrilled! But we – we saw your core.”

“That was a fake planted by the Knights,” Krel says. “Apparently a convincing one. But there’s more important things to deal with.”

“More important?” says Seamus. “Dude! You just came back from the dead! We’ve got to tell everyone, Mort, _Aja_.”

Krel visibly falters at this. Stuart probably already filled him in about the funeral. Aja’s going to be so happy. And then she’ll transition into so mad, because that’s the typical way it goes with Aja. Krel shakes his head. “Aja is going to have to wait. I know who the Knight’s master is.”

“That’s fantastic,” says Claire. She and Jim are both clearly relieved to see him, even if they don’t join in the hug-fest. “Everyone else is still at Toby’s, but we can go right now and–”

“No!” Even Steve is surprised by the intensity in Krel’s voice. “We need to go back to my house. We can tell the others later. Trust me.”

Steve glances at the others. Well, if Krel thinks they shouldn’t go to Toby’s house, then they shouldn’t. Toby nods.

“Alright,” he says. “Let’s go.”

Krel brings them down into the mothership, because it’s apparently not safe to talk upstairs what with no window and door and stuff. Jim and Claire, the only ones completely new to this Akiridion stuff, look around in awe at the technology. Steve sticks close to his no-longer-dead friend, focusing so he can watch Krel's aura flare anxiously and hear his friend’s breathing, both reassuring him that Krel is still there and still very much alive. The younger boy is sipping on the milkshake Seamus insisted on buying him, something about Krel looking like he needed a pick-me-up. Steve has to agree. Krel looks way worse for the wear, covered in bandages and faintly trembling in the hot summer air.

“So, who is it?” asks Seamus as they make themselves comfortable on the floor of Krel's lab. “Is it Mordred?”

“Dude, you really gotta let that go,” says Toby.

“No, it’s not Mordred,” says Krel. “It’s – you have to promise to believe me.”

“Of course!” Eli exclaims. The others nod.

Krel pulls his knees to his chest, bandaged arms wrapping around his legs. “It’s Merlin.”

Jim stiffens. Toby’s face morphs into fury. Steve, personally, thinks they all should have seen this coming. He wishes they had. Now they’ve gone and planned Merlin’s defeat with Merlin, which means they’re really going to have to throw all their plans out the window.

“I knew it,” Toby snarls. “I knew he couldn’t be trusted! Even when he was _helping_ us with the Eternal Night all he really cared about was getting his magic back. And now he’s been actively trying to kill us for over a month!”

Jim lets out a furious roar, slamming his fists down on his armoured thighs. “I should have known! Ugh, how could I have been so _stupid_?”

“We all fell for it, Jim,” Claire says. “Even Blinky, and you know how much he hates Merlin.”

“Well, this is great,” says Seamus. “We tried to make a plan but Merlin was _there_. He knows all the good strategies we could come up with.”

Krel shakes his head. “I don’t know. I barely escaped the Red Knight by pure luck. I don’t know how we’re going to defeat two of them!”

“One of them,” Steve corrects awkwardly. “Aja killed the Black Knight.”

For some reason, Krel looks baffled by this, as if he couldn’t imagine his sister killing someone. Steve knows Aja. He wasn’t that surprised. “Aja killed him?”

“Uh, yeah, he started boasting about killing you and, well...” Toby makes a cutting motion of his neck, complete with a very much unneeded sound effect. Krel winces and nods.

“How did you escape the Red Knight?” asks Seamus. “Maybe we can use that to our advantage?”

“I – don’t really know,” Krel admits. “I used Gaylen’s powers – _my_ powers – but I don’t know how.”

He pulls his legs closer, self-consciously. There’s more to the story than Krel wants to tell, apparently, but Steve sure isn’t going to press him for potentially traumatic details. He gently reaches and traces over the bandages on his face.

“What did he do to you?” he manages to ask. He’s not surprised that Krel is injured, even this badly injured – Steve can see bandage disappearing into the collar of his shirt and expects that the white covers a good portion of his body – but it still makes him sad.

“This is all from the fight in the shop,” says Krel. “I’m okay.”

Steve isn’t so sure about that. Maybe physically Krel’s on the road to recovery, but emotionally there’s _something_ going on and it scares Steve. Krel takes another long sip of his milkshake.

“Okay, at least we have one advantage,” says Toby.

“Uh, we do?” says Douxie.

“Merlin doesn’t know Krel’s alive!” Toby exclaims.

Krel grimaces. “No, he definitely knows I’m alive.”

“Merlin doesn’t know Krel’s back in Arcadia!” Toby amends. “Secret weapon!”

“And Merlin doesn’t know that _I_ know where the formstone is,” Krel tacks on.

“Wait, since when?” says Douxie in surprise.

“Uh, how long has this conversation been?” Krel asks. “Add maybe ten minutes.”

“You missed the part where we decided the formstone is better left unfound,” Seamus says amusedly.

“Oh,” says Krel. “Oops.”

“Can we get the formstone and, like, hide it on Akiridion-5 or something?” Steve suggests. “So that Merlin can’t get to it.”

Krel shakes his head. “Too risky. For all we know, moving the formstone could result in the same level of catastrophe.”

“Yeah, let’s maybe avoid the catastrophe part,” says Eli awkwardly.

“We can’t let Merlin know you know, dude,” says Toby. “Otherwise he’ll try to make you tell him.”

“And that wouldn’t be pretty,” Steve mutters. He’s never leaving Krel undefended until they’re done with this mess. Merlin could – torture him, or something, and Steve is _not_ going to let that happen.

“We need to tell Uncle Mort and the others,” says Douxie. “Uh, besides Merlin, obviously we’ll be leaving him out.”

“Hey, so, why don’t we just… snipe him?” Toby suggests. Steve’s eyebrows shoot up. The others have varying expressions of similar disbelief. “What? No more Merlin, no more problem! Happy ending, yay!”

“How are we supposed to _snipe him_?” Jim asks dubiously. “He’s an ancient, super-powerful evil wizard.”

“And we have high-tech space guns!” Toby exclaims. “And the advantage of surprise, because he still thinks that _we_ think that he’s a good guy. Hey, we could sic Aja on him.”

“Ay-yi-yi,” mutters Krel.

“Hey, sounds like a good idea to me,” says Stuart, who’s been suspiciously quiet this whole time.

“I think I have a way to get him out of the house,” says Claire.

“Seriously, please let us just kill him,” says Toby.

“Toby, chill with the murder for, like, ten minutes,” says Jim.

Toby huffs and crosses his arms. “Fine, fine, we’ll use Claire’s plan. Still think we should kill him.”

“He’s been teaching me magic – well, okay, I use teaching lightly – so I should be able to get him away,” says Claire. “Then you guys tell the others. I don’t know how long I can keep him away. Make sure they act natural when we get back.”

“Yeah, we’ll try,” says Jim. “I think Blinky will be ready to throw a dwarkstone at him.”

“I’m okay with this,” says Toby.

“I’ll hang back with Krel and hide us both with a spell,” says Seamus. “We’ll come in when Merlin’s clear.”

“Sounds like a plan!” says Stuart brightly.

“Alright,” says Jim. “Come on. The sooner we get everyone on board, the sooner we can figure – well, something out.”

The others start to leave. Toby helps Steve to his feet – man, Steve is so, _so_ sick of this cast – and Steve, in turn, offers Krel a hand getting up. Krel gives him a small smile. Steve’s very glad to have that smile back.

“Never scare us like that again,” he tells Krel firmly. “Or I’ll – I dunno, I’ll bring you back to kill you myself!”

“Wouldn’t that be counter-intuitive?” Krel points out cheekily.

Steve can’t help but let out a small laugh. It comes out a lot more like a sob than he meant, and he swings an arm over Krel’s shoulders to draw him closer. “I’m so glad you’re back.”

Krel laughs too, eyes sparkling and so wonderfully alive. “Glad to be back.”

Steve still actually hasn’t seen Seamus do a ton of magic, so it’s still mildly surprising to see him trace a teal rune in the air and cover himself and Krel in an invisibility spell. Seriously, he can’t believe Seamus has been a wizard _this whole time_ and Steve only found out like two weeks ago.

Mort nods to them as they walk in; he does a quick double-take, clearly surprised to see Stuart with them, but he smiles welcomingly anyway. He and Blinky are both sitting on the couch – oh, no, they’re bonding. Steve doesn’t know Blinky that well, but what he does know is that Mort and Blinky being friends might be a very scary thing. Merlin wonders back in from the kitchen. Steve suppresses a wave of anger. This is the man who’s been trying to kill them – who hurt Krel. He likes Toby’s plan. Murder sounds nice right now.

“No milkshake for me?” asks Nimue, teasingly punching Douxie’s shoulder as she walks by. “And here I thought we were friends.”

“Sorry, Nim,” he says. “Next time.”

“Hey, Merlin,” says Claire. Steve is impressed by her acting skills, and also her willingness to even talk to the crazy evil wizard trying to destroy the world. “I was wondering if you could show me some more magic stuff? I found a good place to practice and if the end of the world’s coming, I have to be prepared.”

Merlin raises an eyebrow. “Well, I suppose that is true. Very well. And what of you two? Wizards as well, aren’t you?”

Steve and Douxie exchange alarmed looks as Merlin’s eyes land on them.

“Uh, I think I’m good,” says Steve. “Got too big of a milkshake. Stomach’s a bit queasy.”

“Er,” manages Douxie. He glances to Mort, which is probably smart because Mort can surely come up with an excuse.

“It’s alright,” says Mort. “Perhaps you’d do a better job teaching Claire, anyway.”

Merlin harrumphs. “I think not.”

“Thanks, Uncle Mort, you’re a real help,” Douxie mumbles under his breath. Toby gives him a sympathetic pat on the back.

“Great, let’s go!” says Claire, only a bit too brightly. “We’re burning daylight.”

Douxie shoves his hands angrily in his pocket as he follows the two of them out. Mort sighs and grumbles something that sounds like, “Teenagers.” They wait a few minutes, until they’re sure Merlin is far enough away, then Toby peeks his head through the window curtains and gives a thumbs-up in Seamus and Krel’s general direction.

“Well, that was incredibly odd,” mutters Ikram.

“No, Douxie trusts Merlin almost as little as I do,” says Mort. “But even I can admit he’s a powerful wizard – and I don’t like the idea of Claire alone with him.”

“Agreed,” says Blinky with a scowl.

The door opens, as if by a ghost, but Steve knows that Seamus just hasn’t lifted the invisibility spell yet. Better safe than sorry. Mort’s eyebrows furrow. Ikram’s hand goes to her sword, sheathed at her waist. Seamus first lifts the spell on himself, hands up in a show of innocence.

“Just me!” he says.

“What on Earth are you doing sneaking around like that?” Mort asks in exasperation, before muttering something else about teenagers that Steve thinks he should take offence to.

“Don’t freak out,” cautions Seamus.

“That’s not a good way to start anything,” says Nimue flatly.

Seamus lifts the spell on Krel. The bandaged boy waves awkwardly. Blinky’s jaw drops and he rubs his eyes. Aaarrrgghh!!! makes a delighted sound and charges forward, lifting Krel off his feet in a somehow still gentle hug. Blinky is quick to join.

“Impossible,” whispers Ikram, hand going to cover her mouth in her shock.

“Krel?” Mort says faintly. Aaarrrgghh!!! releases Krel, and Mort surges forward to pull him into his own hug, eyes closed even as tears slip free anyway. After a long moment – enough time to reassure himself that it’s really Krel and he’s really alive – Mort pulls away, hands resting on Krel’s shoulders. His eyes linger on every visible bandage and his lips twist downward. “How did you survive? We found your core, I – I tried every spell I could think of just in case but I couldn’t find you–”

Krel shakes his head. “It’s a long story. We can talk about it later. Right now, there are more important things.”

“Krel found out who the Knights’ master is,” says Jim.

“You did?” Ikram steps forward, eyes wide. “How?”

“I came across him in the woods when the Red Knight was reporting in – it’s a long story.” Krel glances towards the front door, then meets Mort’s eyes. “It’s Merlin. Merlin is the evil wizard.”

There’s a brief silence. For a moment, Steve is worried the adults won’t believe them, that they’ll need more evidence than Krel’s word, even though Steve knows Krel wouldn’t be mistaken. Then Aaarrrgghh!!! lets out a low growl and Mort closes his eyes in clear horror. Ikram groans and punches the wall.

“That vile vermin! That degenerate double-crosser! That _malignant malefactor_!” Blinky cries, all six eyes narrowed and four hands curled into fists. “Why, I’ll rip him apart with my own hands!”

“That’s what I’m saying, man,” agrees Toby.

“I’ll help!” Stuart jumps in. “I will _gladly_ help. That man deserves an extremely painful death for what he did to Krel.”

“Well, I could have seen that coming from a mile away.” Mort sighs and rubs his forehead. “And yet somehow I just thought he was a repulsive human being not particularly associated with good or bad. Figures.”

“Douxie and Claire,” rumbles Aaarrrgghh!!! worriedly.

“So long as Merlin isn’t aware that we know he’s our enemy, I don’t think he’ll hurt them,” says Ikram.

Steve hopes so. The last thing they need right now is more people getting – more hurt. Douxie’s shoulder isn’t healed yet, Steve is technically supposed to be on the crutches for another few days, and Krel – Krel is in bad shape. Steve can tell by the way he’s started to slump, by the faint trembling in his limbs.

The door opens. All of them turn. Steve’s stomach drops. Merlin stands in the doorway, hands surrounded by toxic green focusers, Claire and Douxie floating a few inches off the ground in front of him, struggling in the grasp of the same awful green. So much for Merlin not knowing they know. He shoves his hands forward and Douxie and Claire fly into the room, the magic releasing them as they tumble to the floor. Jim immediately launches himself angrily towards Merlin, only for the wizard to send a blast of unformed magic at him. He stumbles back and kneels by Claire instead, protective as Toby helps her sit up. Mort and Krel both crouch to help Douxie. Steve swallows and adjusts his crutches to free his hands for spells if needed; he activates his armour – still _so cool_ by the way, take that Jim, Steve has magic armour too now. He does still hate how it feels around his cast, but there’s nothing to be done for that. After a second, Toby and Seamus do the same. Ikram draws her sword and Nimue summons her duel daggers. Seamus, too, summons a weapon – what looks to be some sort of long, teal spear.

“Congratulations,” says Merlin. He doesn’t seem bothered that he’s outnumbered. “You’ve figured it out. And to think, all this time you actually thought it was _Mordred_. Pah. Mordred is too weak to even think of pursuing the formstone."

Mort stands. With a flex of his hands he’s suddenly holding two long, thin swords.

“Kids,” he says evenly, “get somewhere safe. Everyone else, go with them. I’ll hold him off as long as I can.”

“Mort, listen, I know you’re a great wizard and all, but Merlin is centuries older than you,” Toby exclaims. “And also super powerful! The only one who might stand a chance is Morgana!”

Mort smiles grimly. "The pupil must always surpass the teacher, they say, and I like to think I've quite managed. Aunt Morgana isn't the only one who stands a chance."

“_Aunt Morgana_!?” Seamus repeats in shocked disbelief. “What – _but_–”

“We’ll see who you think is weak now, Merlin.” Mort – or rather, Mordred – vanishes one sword in order to activate his own armour. He looks exactly like his picture in Seamus’s book, almost terrifying in a way Steve never thought he could be, magic arcing in his hands and face pulled into a dark frown. He glances back at them again. “_Go_.”

“You heard the wizard!” cries Blinky. “Come along!”

They charge out the backdoor – the clouds have finally shifted into a proper rainstorm, which Steve has been dreading all day but couldn’t be more relieved for now. They would have been totally screwed if it was sunny out. There’s not an umbrella in the world quite big enough for Aaarrrgghh!!!. He leaves his crutches behind, deciding that he may screw up his leg but he can’t run on crutches and they really do need to run. He knows Mort – Mordred – _whatever_ is strong, but does he stand a chance against Merlin? The Merlin?

Aaarrrgghh!!! glances at Krel, stumbling and shivering in the rain, and scoops him up and throws him onto his back. Steve approves. Douxie keeps glancing back, until Nimue glares at him at hard enough that his face pulls into resigned distress and he focuses on where he’s going.

“To–”

“The canal, we know!” Steve completes. Toby laughs sheepishly, launching into the air with his war-hammer in order to travel faster. The rain makes the ground slippery, but they manage to make it alright, even if the rain really can’t be good for Steve’s cast. Oh well. He’s getting it off soon, anyway. They skid to a stop under the bridge – where everything ends, somehow, and Steve doesn’t like to think that they’re back here now. Toby lets Blinky draw the portal, and they hurry through. Blinky marks a large X over the wall; it lights up red.

“He won’t be getting in here anytime soon,” he says firmly.

“It’s not that hard,” says Ikram dryly. “Lots of back entrances and exits, you know.”

Blinky scowls. Krel climbs off Aaarrrgghh!!!’s back and pats the big troll appreciatively. Aaarrrgghh!!! smiles fondly and offers him a fist bump, then afterwards pats Krel’s head.

“Come,” says Blinky. “Deeper into Trollmarket.”

As they walk down the faintly glowing stairs and into Trollmarket proper, Jim’s face morphs into sadness. Both the other trolls’ faces also shift, as well as Toby and Claire’s. Steve never knew the real Trollmarket, the way it was before the Eternal Night, but he can understand their pain. Stuart and Eli look around in awe. Steve wishes he could have visiting before all the destruction. According to Toby, Trollmarket was a beautiful place. He hopes Arcadia doesn’t end up as a similar tragedy.

“We’re safe for now,” says Jim. “As long as Mort – uh, Mordred? As long as he holds off Merlin.”

“I can’t believe it,” mutters Douxie.

“No offence to Mort – Mordred – whoever he is, but he couldn’t even hold off Ikram with Nimue’s help,” Toby points out.

“He had to have been going easy on me,” says Ikram. “I think he suspected my situation and reacted accordingly. I never would have been able to knock out _the_ Mordred.”

“This is crazy,” Douxie says, laughing like someone on the verge of a mental breakdown. Steve gets it. He’s been there all summer. “I think I would _know_ if my uncle was some – some centuries-old evil sorcerer!”

“Clearly not evil,” Krel points out.

“Yeah, I’m thinking the history books kind of got him wrong, dude,” says Steve. “I don’t think Mort could be evil to save his life.”

Seamus just leans his head back and groans. “Now I feel like a complete idiot. No _wonder _he was so convinced the Knight’s master wasn’t Mordred.”

Krel snickers. “Good job, Seamus. You’ve been telling Mort he’s the bad guy for two weeks.”

“Shut up,” Seamus grumbles, but he smiles and claps a hand on Krel’s shoulder so Steve knows he’s missed Krel’s snark too.

“Okay, okay,” says Jim. “We need a plan. What’s the plan? Krel? Now would be a great time for details on how you escaped the Red Knight.”

Krel winces and shakes his head. “I don’t know. I told you I don’t know. I used my powers but I don’t know how to – do that.”

Blinky puts a hand to his chin and crosses his other arms across his torso. “Powers, you say. Fascinating. Were they triggered by intense emotion? Anger? Fear? Sorrow?”

“I – guess,” says Krel.

“Well, I’m sure you’ll be plenty afraid if Merlin comes after us,” says Toby helpfully.

“Okay, we need a plan that doesn’t depend on Krel’s Gaylen powers,” Steve cuts in. Krel shoots him a relieved look, which means he was definitely reading into his friend’s unease correctly. “Okay, Trollhunters, you have experience fighting ancient evil wizards. Go.”

“_Go_?” Toby repeats.

Steve gestures at them. “Make a plan! You’re the veterans here!”

“Fighting Morgana was really a lot less planning and a lot more trying not to die,” admits Jim. “We only beat her because of Angor Rot’s help, really, and Claire’s staff. And we don’t have… either of those.”

“Okay, what did this angry rot do?” prompts Krel.

Jim and Toby exchange frowns. Claire sighs. “Angor Rot sacrificed himself so we could weaken Morgana and banish her to the Shadow Realm.”

Krel grimaces. “Never mind.”

“Yeah, nobody is sacrificing themselves here,” says Seamus.

“Plan, plan, plan,” mutters Douxie. “Gah! This is impossible!”

“Calm down,” says Nimue. “We’ll figure something out. Every enemy has a weakness.”

“Merlin has had his magic taken from him before,” Toby points out. “Maybe we could figure out how to do that? You think Mort would know?”

“I didn’t know you could take someone’s magic!” Douxie wails.

Nimue pats his shoulder. “There, there.”

“Okay, okay, I got it, I got it,” says Stuart. Steve is ninety percent sure he hasn’t actually got it, but they don’t have any _good_ plans so there’s no harm hearing Stuart’s bad one. “We call Aja. We get a bunch of fighters from Akiridion-5 and also the Foo-foos again. Then, we attack Merlin with everything we’ve got! He can’t stop all of us!”

“It’s… not the worst idea,” concedes Ikram. “There may be strength in numbers. It would be wise to gather our allies.”

“We’ll need to do that from somewhere else.” They all spin around at Mort’s voice. Steve swallows at the sight of him, blood seeping from a wound near his temple, but he doesn’t look badly injured from what Steve can see.

“Uncle Mort!” Douxie cries in relief, running forward and grabbing Mort in a hug. The older wizard winces but wraps his arms around his nephew, curling a hand in Douxie’s hair. “You got away!”

“Yes, but not for long,” says Mort. Seriously, should Steve be calling him Mordred now? He’s not sure. “Earth isn’t safe. We need to take refuge on Akiridion-5.”

“If Aja will let us,” Steve points out. He tries not to let the bitterness seep into his voice, but by Krel’s alarmed glance it does anyway. “She kicked us out, remember?”

“She’ll let us,” says Eli. “Aja may be angry at you for letting Krel die, but she wouldn’t just abandon us like that.”

“Also, I’m not dead,” Krel adds. “So she can stop being mad. And even if I was dead, no one _let me _die.”

Steve and Toby grimace at each other. They kinda _did_. Letting Krel face the Knights without them, even with Ikram, was a mistake. Steve didn’t even know it was happening until it was too late. He hates that he was too late.

Douxie finally releases Mort. The older wizard turns around and lets his eyes trail over all of them, as if they might have gotten injured on the way to Trollmarket. He walks over to Krel and runs a hand over the bandages, before gently manoeuvring him to sit on a nearby stone.

“I know a few potion-less healing spells,” he says. “Let’s see if we can’t make this a little more bearable, shall we?”

“Thanks,” says Krel. He turns off the transduction. Even more bandages are revealed when his lower arms finally are, as well as the ones wrapping his torso. Mort gently unravels the bandages, careful not to hurt Krel. Steve’s heart sinks as the burns are revealed, gruesome and stark against his skin and jumpsuit. Mort’s expression gives away his own horror.

“These will scar,” Mort warns. “Or, well, they would on a human. I’m not sure if Akiridions _can_ scar.”

“They can,” Krel says quietly. The burns on his face make Steve flinch back. The injuries are worse than he’d previously expected. Mort kneels and his hands light up bronze and he murmurs words Steve can’t understand, fingers tracing the burns from a centimetre away. Krel's expression smooths out from the faint pain Steve hadn’t originally realised was there are the burns start to heal over, now well on their way to scars. Steve adds that spell to his to-learn list.

“There,” says Mort as he finishes. “Ideally I’d use more bandages and gauze to be safe but I think you’ll be okay. We’ll get them to look at you on Akiridion-5.”

“Aja won’t be very happy to see this.”

“I think at the point, Aja will just be thrilled you’re alive,” Mort says. He stands back up. “Is anyone else injured?”

“Are _you_ injured?” Ikram demands.

“Not badly,” says Mort.

“How did you get into Trollmarket?” Blinky demands.

Mort raises an eyebrow. “I’m a wizard. I have no need for your horngazel. And neither will Merlin. No place on this planet is safe from Merlin, but he shouldn’t be able to get to Akiridion-5.”

“Like I said,” says Ikram. “Trollmarket isn’t as safe as you think it is. At least not anymore.”

“Shouldn’t?” Toby repeats.

“Never let your guard down,” warns Mort. “Still, we’ll be safer there than here.”

“Yeah, I don’t really want to stay here long enough for more zombie Gumm-Gumms to show up,” adds Toby.

“_What_?” says Claire in disbelief.

“Undead Gumm-Gumms,” rumbles Aaarrrgghh!!!. “Bad news.”

“Well, that’s the last thing we need to deal with right now,” mutters Seamus. “Zombies! Just when I think I’ve seen everything.”

Jim looks around the ruins sadly. Blinky puts a hand on his shoulder. Steve hates to think how he would feel to lose his home like this, like Blinky and Aaarrrgghh!!! have. If they can’t beat Merlin, he guesses he’ll find out. If he isn’t dead. Because they might all be dead by the end of this. Some morbid part of Steve hopes he dies first, if they’re all going to die. Even though Krel’s alive the trauma of finding his core still lingers, and Steve never wants to experience that again.

Mort glances back towards the stairs to Trollmarket, then back to them. His expression is sombre, furrowed brows with blood slowly dripping down the side of his face. Steve’s starting to realise that the end of the world is upon them, and they don’t have the slightest idea how to stop it.

“We’ll leave at night-fall,” Mort says.


	22. The Siege of Arcadia

They spend the last few hours before nightfall uneasy in Trollmarket. No zombies show up, but they stay on alert anyway. Merlin also doesn’t show up. That just makes Toby more worried than if Merlin had just come after them. Mort paces nervously, glancing at them every now and then as if they might reveal they were injured and didn’t tell him. He goes over Krel’s burns again with more healing spells, getting them a lot closer to scars than angry, open wounds. Toby feels ill to see his friend injured so badly. After much prodding and a very reluctant okay from Mort, Douxie and Seamus help Steve take off his cast. He flexes his leg with a wince but assures them he’s fine. Toby doesn’t believe him, but he understands that they all need to be prepared for a major fight, the kind of fight that ends in loss even if they win.

They end up back on that same cliff. Toby sticks close to Krel, and he notices Steve and Seamus doing the same. It’s hard not to think that the last time they were here, they thought Krel was dead and they were bringing the Akiridion equivalent of his dead body back to Akiridion-5, but it helps to know he’s standing right here and very much alive. It helps to know they’re all here, alive, at the calm before the storm, before everything well and truly hits the fan.

Mort is the one to call Aja. That’s probably the best choice. She’s definitely still mad at all of them, with good reason, but she was especially mad at Steve and Toby doesn’t want to test his own chances, either. Krel is out, because revealing his new status of not-dead over the phone isn’t really the most tactful thing they can do. Anyway, the fact that she even picks up is a good sign. Mort puts it on speaker-phone for their benefit.

“What do you want?” Aja says. Krel starts forward at the sound of her voice, short and irritated, but stops himself last second. He leans against Steve, next to him, and Steve wraps a comforting arm around his shoulders.

“Your majesty,” Mort starts. Formality is a nice choice. Hopefully. He doesn’t think Aja will turn them away, even if she is still angry at them. She has a strong enough moral compass, right? Losing Krel wouldn’t send her down a spiral to villainy. He thinks. He hopes. “I’m calling to request refuge. The wizard we told you about–”

Before Mort can continue, there’s the sound of a faint explosion from the town. Toby and the others run closer to the ledge to get a better look. Steve’s eyes widen. “Guys, we either gotta leave now or get down there like ten minutes ago.”

Seamus’s hands curl into fists. His eyes don’t leave Arcadia. “We can’t just run away. This is our home. We have to protect it.”

Mort curses under his breath. “Guys. Stick to the plan. We’re not abandoning Arcadia, we’re regrouping, now would you please just–”

“Is it the people who killed my brother?” Aja demands. Krel flinches, but he keeps his mouth firmly shut. Steve pulls him closer, brow furrowed and worried. Mort starts to say something, maybe tell Aja that they’ll explain when they get there, but Aja, being Aja, doesn’t wait for confirmation. “I’m on my way.”

“I forgot, all of you kids are impulsive and brash,” mutters Mort. “No, Aja, it is far too dangerous to fight him right – and she hung up.”

“That’s my sister for you,” Krel says quietly. “Never thinking things through.”

“Okay, what are we doing?” Steve demands. He gestures towards the town. “Are we going down there? Oh, man, we’re gonna die. We’re all gonna die.”

“As usual, thank you for your optimism, Steve,” says Nimue flatly.

“We’re not going to–” Mort cuts off mid-sentence and covers his face with a hand. “Okay. Here’s the plan. The kids are going to get as far away from Arcadia as human or inhumanly possible. Stuart will chaperone because I’m not sure he could survive a fight anyway. Anyone else who doesn’t wish to or feel able to fight will go with them.”

“I’d be offended if you weren’t right,” Stuart says sheepishly.

“What about you?” Douxie asks. “It’s too dangerous. You’re already hurt. You can’t face Merlin again.”

“Douxie, it is my responsibility to protect you.” Mort pulls his nephew into a hug. Toby tries not to think that if Mort faces Merlin again, this could be the last time they ever see him. Toby isn’t ready to lose anyone else – well, lose someone for real to this mess. Mort presses a fatherly kiss to the top of Douxie’s head. “I won’t go down so easily. I promise I’ll do everything in my power to come back to you.”

“Don’t go down at all,” Douxie mumbles.

Mort gently pushes Douxie towards the rest of them. One glance at Douxie’s expression tells Toby that they’re not going to be getting as far away from Arcadia as human or inhumanly possible. The part of him that just wants his friends to be safe wishes they would, but Arcadia is their home. They’re not leaving now. Still, with one last sombre look at the adults who think they’re going to safety, they follow Stuart into the woods. Krel’s natural glow casts a blue tint over the trees and leaves nearby, and Seamus uses his phone as a flashlight so they can better see where they’re going.

“So we’re going _back_, right?” Krel says once they’re far enough away that the adults won’t hear them.

“Of course we’re going back,” says Douxie. “Just because Uncle Mort doesn’t think we can handle it doesn’t mean we can’t handle it. We’re going to need everyone against Merlin.”

Steve groans, even though Toby knows he’s on the same page as the rest of them. “Like I said. We’re all gonna die.”

“Thank you, Steve,” says Jim flatly. “Alright, here’s the plan. We go to the bridge.”

“Oh, not the bridge,” moans Toby.

“It _is_ always the bridge,” Claire agrees reluctantly. “That’s probably where we’ll find Merlin.”

Krel frowns and furrows his brow. “Should I tell you guys where the formstone is?”

“I know where the formstone is!” Stuart pipes in helpfully.

“The less people who know, the better,” decides Jim. “So not yet. If this goes wrong and Merlin captures one of us…”

“We won’t let things go wrong,” says Seamus. Toby appreciates his determination, but they don’t really get a say in whether things go wrong. Things always go wrong. Considering they don’t really have an actual thought-out plan for this, things will definitely go wrong. The only times things have gone right is when they’ve planned ahead, and “go to the bridge” is hardly a plan. They’re screwed.

Arcadia is eerily silent. It puts Toby on edge. It’s not that late at night – normally the town would still be bustling with activity. Even cars are stopped in the middle of the street. Steve stops abruptly in front of a restaurant window.

“Um, so that’s creepy,” he mutters. Toby peers in the window. There are people inside, all as still as statues, even the waiter poised as if he just tripped. It’s as if they’ve been frozen in time.

“Merlin must have done this,” says Douxie grimly. “A stasis spell of some sort. They’ll be fine – well, except that guy, he’s going to fall on his face when we find a way to break this.”

“If Merlin can freeze everyone in Arcadia,” Eli says warily, “how are _we_ supposed to beat him?”

Jim shakes his head, eyes conflicted. “I don’t know.”

“He’s a powerful wizard, fine.” Seamus raps his knuckles on the glass, as if this might get a reaction from the frozen people inside. “We have our own advantages. Numbers. Something to fight for. Krel may or may not be an actual god.”

“Please stop saying that,” says Krel, in a tone of voice that tells Toby’s that he and Seamus have already talked about this somewhere between Krel getting his powers and – the incident in the shop.

“My point is, don’t count us as done for just yet,” Seamus says. “We can’t give up before we’ve even tried.”

By the time they reach the canal, Mort and the others have also arrived. Toby uses his hammer to float down into the canal while the others more heroically skid into it. They join the adults. Nimue rolls her eyes and hits Douxie on his good shoulder. Mort doesn’t even look surprised to see them, just quietly resigned. His expression promises that they’re all grounded if they live. Toby thinks being grounded would actually be a nice break.

“What are you doing here?” Ikram hisses, as if she’d actually expected them to run away like Mort told them to. Surely she knows them better than that by now. She lets out a frustrated growl and glares at them. Aaarrrgghh!!! offers Toby a fist-bump. See? Aaarrrgghh!!! knows them well.

“No sign of Merlin,” says Steve suspiciously.

“Oh, I’m here.” Toby tightens his grip on his hammer as Merlin appears, out of nowhere, on cue. A cloaking spell or something, then. He’d probably been waiting for them. Steve steps protectively half in front of Krel, and Seamus mimics him on Krel’s other side; Krel himself hovers a few inches off the ground. Toby isn’t even sure if he knows he’s doing it. Claire’s hands tighten into fists, and Jim’s mouth curls into an angry snarl, the betrayal still sharp in his eyes.

“Bold of you to face us alone,” says Nimue.

“Bold of you to assume I’m alone,” Merlin retorts. He waves a hand and the Red Knight appears behind him followed by dozens of trolls with eyes all glowing an eerie green. Jim takes a step backwards, eyes wide. Aaarrrgghh!!! lets out a low, rumbling growl.

“Great Gronka-Morra!” Blinky cries. “You’re using our own brethren against us! You _fiend_!”

“I needed an army,” says Merlin, tone as calm as if he was discussing a grocery list instead of mind-controlling a bunch of innocent trolls. “I’m sure you’re bringing one.”

Toby doesn’t know if Aja will be coming with an army or not. It’d be nice if she would bring an army. He doubts she thought that far ahead. Man, Toby really doesn’t want to fight the trolls. They seem to be, like, mind-controlled or something, and he has a lot of issues with mind-control. These trolls don’t deserve to be fought, potentially hurt or worse, but he’s not sure how careful they can afford to be.

Jim makes a weird grunting noise, something first like surprise and then like pain. Then, to Toby’s horror, he grabs his head and stumbles backwards. Blinky reaches out in alarm, but then Jim freezes in place and stands straight. He opens his eyes again. They’re glowing green – Merlin’s green.

“No,” whispers Toby. “No, no, not you. I can’t fight you.”

Jim roars and charges forward, just as the rest the trolls and the Knight attack. Mort takes to the sky just as Merlin does – oh, kleb, that’s right, if Mort is Mordred he can fly – and they clash in mid-air. Toby doesn’t have time to focus on the others when Jim’s sword comes down at him.

“Jim!” he exclaims, barely managing to dodge and then bring his hammer up to block the next attack. “Jimbo! It’s me! It’s Tobes! Your best bud! Remember?”

“Jim, snap out of it!” Claire’s hands flare with wavering purple focusers – huh, when’d she learn that? – and she thrusts them towards Jim. He’s surrounded in violet for a second, before he bursts out of it and charges at her. She jumps out of the way.

Toby blocks another attack. He reminds himself that this isn’t Jim right now, not anymore. The otherworldly green glow of his eyes looks so incredibly wrong. Toby’s eyes burn with tears.

“Jim, please!” he pleads. “You have to snap out of it, man! We’re your friends! Your best friends!”

Jim gives no response. This isn’t a stupid kids’ movie. Merlin’s magic is too strong for the power of friendship to break through. The only choice Toby has is to fight his friend, try to knock him out without hurting him badly and without him hurting them.

Toby dodges Jim’s next attack too slowly. Daylight slices through the side of his face. He's lucky he got this far away or he'd be dead. He can’t help the yelp that slips through in response to the pain.

“Toby!” Claire cries.

“I’m fine!” Toby grits out, even as warm blood seeps into the under-suit of his armour. He has no idea how they’re going to get through to Jim. If they can get through to Jim. The thought that Jim might be lost to them – permanently – makes Toby sick to his stomach. The thought of this going on much longer – of Jim causing damage, more damage than a simple cut like this, and of Jim snapping out of it to realise what he’d done – that makes Toby even sicker.

Jim lunges again, and Toby uses his war-hammer to shoot upwards and out of the way. From his higher vantage point, he can see the rest of the battle – they’re outnumbered and disadvantaged simply because they aren’t trying to kill the trolls. Mort and Merlin are still fiercely battling in the sky. It’s a terrifying sight to behold. Krel has also taken to the air, wobbly and amateur in his flight compared to Merlin and Mort and dive-bombing trolls with a shield to knock them out. Steve and Seamus are fighting the Red Knight. Toby catches sight of blood on Steve’s face and winces. That’s great, they’re all getting injuries.

Then, before Toby’s feet have even touched the ground again, a wormhole opens behind them. Krel sends it a panicked look, and then suddenly his form shifts and he looks nothing like himself and more like the disguise he’d used what feels like decades ago, when they were trying to avoid the Black Knight. Yeah. Okay. Maybe in the middle of a battle isn’t the time for Aja to find out her brother is alive.

Aja, Zadra, and Vex storm out of the wormhole first with matching, furious battle-cries. They’re followed by dozens of Akiridions, at least, before Toby has to focus again to dodge Jim’s next attack.

“Be careful!” Toby hears Douxie yell. “The trolls are mind-controlled! Don’t kill them!”

“Got it!” Aja hollers. “But leave the Knight to me.”

Toby doesn’t pay attention to them after that. He’s glad they have back-up, but he really does need to focus on Jim. He’s coming at them with everything he’s got, which is a testament to how strong Merlin’s mind control is. Toby barely somersaults sideways, away from the sword that would have otherwise buried itself in his chest. Jim’s trying to _kill _them.

Aaarrrgghh!!! – where did he come from? – grabs Jim from behind, trapping him in his arms. Blinky skids up beside Toby and Claire as Jim struggles and snarls in Aaarrrgghh!!!’s grasp like a rabid animal.

“Master Jim,” Blinky pleads. “You must fight this! I know you can. You are incredibly strong and you have more heart than you know what to do with. Use that heart. _Please_, Master Jim!”

Jim’s only response is a deep growl. Tears sting Toby’s new wound. It physically hurts him to see his best friend like this. Blinky reaches out to Jim and he snaps at him with his teeth. Is Jim even in there anymore? Or is this all Merlin? Is Jim gone forever?

“Jim,” Claire says softly. She takes a hesitant step forward, but doesn’t dare get too close. Her own face is streaked with tears. “O fortune, fortune! all men call thee fickle: If thou art fickle, what dost thou with him, that is renown'd for faith? Be fickle, fortune; for then, I hope, thou wilt not keep him long, but send him back.”

Not even a flicker of recognition in Jim’s eyes. If _Romeo and Juliet_ can’t get him, Toby’s not sure anything can at this point.

“Come on, Jim,” he tries, one more time. “Come back to us.”

Jim roars furiously once more, and before any of them can stop him he’s busted out of Aaarrrgghh!!!’s grip and charged them. Toby is pinned within seconds, breath caught in his throat, staring into the bloodthirsty green eyes – wrong, wrong, wrong – of his best friend.

“Toby!” he hears Eli yell. Suddenly, Jim is tackled off him by a blur of pink. Eli helps him to his feet as Nomura and Jim circle each other.

“Nomura? When did you get here!?” Toby manages.

“You kids can’t be left alone for ten minutes!” growls Nomura, which means she probably has a vague idea what’s going on.

“Are you okay?” asks Eli.

“Physically? Yeah, sure,” says Toby.

“I do not believe this is a fight we can win,” Blinky says gravely as Jim lets out another animalistic snarl.

“This is impossible!” Vex yells from nearby. He catches sight of them and charges over, picking up Jim and chucking him across the battlefield. He gestures angrily in the same direction. “Varvatos is trained to SLAY! NOT SPARE!”

“None of us are really trained for this, man,” Toby points out.

On cue, there’s a loud crash and a whole lot of dust kicked up. Toby hears Douxie scream, “UNCLE MORT!!”

“Oh, kleb,” Toby manages. If Mort is down, they’re screwed. They’re the most screwed they can get. He searches for the wizard on the battlefield, but it’s impossible to find him among the chaos. He tells himself Mort will be fine, back up in the air in a few minutes. He doesn’t believe himself.

“We must make a tactical retreat!” calls Zadra. Krel lands next to her and stumbles, but she steadies him, even though she currently has no idea who he is.

“Not yet!” Aja exclaims.

“Revenge is going to have to wait,” says Ikram. “The Akiridion is correct, we cannot win this.”

Merlin still hovers in the air. He looks far too pleased with himself, or maybe the right amount of pleased with himself, considering the fact that he’s winning. Blinky and Aaarrrgghh!!! pull Mort up. He looks unconscious, but then his face contorts and Toby knows he’s not dead. He still looks – bad – but bad is better than dead.

“I believe I’ll be taking my key, now,” says Merlin. Toby sees Steve’s eyes widen in horror as both of them understand this at the same time, before Krel is enveloped in green light and cries out. Aja’s head snaps towards him, eyes wide like she’s heard a ghost. Steve starts running. Toby starts running, flying even, but he’s not going to make it to Krel.

“Don’t touch him!” Steve hollers. He yanks Krel out of the path of the spell, throwing him to his knees, and suddenly Steve is caught in the acid grip. Krel shoots to his feet as Steve is dragged away, Steve’s name ripping from his throat in a painful and gut-wrenching scream, lunging forward only to be grabbed by Dr. Lake and Strickler. Aja shrieks and charges towards Merlin, but Jim intercepts them. Toby is thrown into the side of the bridge. Through spinning vision, he sees Jim slam Aja headfirst into the ground. She stays down for a long moment, too long for comfort.

“Go!” Steve yells, struggling in the grasp of Merlin’s magic. His next breath comes out as a choked gasp. The spell is hurting him – Toby’s heart lurches at the realisation. “Get out of here! I’ll be okay!”

It’s a lie. Toby knows it, Steve knows it, Krel – still screaming, still desperately trying to get to Steve – knows it. Merlin wants Steve dead. If they leave Steve – like they left Krel – they’re never going to see him again. The end. Toby refuses to let that happen. Not again. Not for real this time.

“Let go of him!” Toby yells. He shakes off his disorientation and flies back towards Merlin. Seamus joins him, shouting incomprehensibly as he charges forward on the ground, spear poised in front of him and ready to attack.

Toby’s grabbed out of the air by an armoured hand and slammed into the ground. The air is knocked out of him. He pushes himself dizzily into a sitting position. There’s a metallic clatter as Seamus is thrown to the ground next to him. The Red Knight’s foot slams down on Seamus’s chest, eliciting a sharp gasp, and the Knight’s sword is levelled at Toby’s throat.

“No!” he hears Krel howl. “No, no, no!”

Flickering teal focusers light up around Seamus’s hands, like he’s going to attack the Knight. The Red Knight responds by driving his sword into Seamus’s upper arm. The focusers vanish as Seamus cries out despite himself. Toby, no longer at sword-point, adjusts his grip on his war-hammer, forces himself to his feet, and swings it towards the Red Knight. Before he knows what’s happening, there’s a sharp pain in his side. He stumbles backwards, free hand going to the injury – he doesn’t know what that guy’s sword is made of, but it managed to cleave clean through his armour and right into, well, him. Blood spills in crimson rivulets down the orange metal. Oh. That’s a lot of blood. He wavers and falls back to his knees. Seamus is still sprawled on the ground, the Knight’s boot once again holding him down, a puddle of red spreading from his arm. He struggles to no avail.

Great. Now even more of them are going to die.

Toby’s vision blurs and black spots start popping up. He can still faintly hear Krel screaming, the sounds of a battle still raging, the whirl of a wormhole and Zadra yelling, “Retreat!” The world is fading around him fast, now, and he knows not all the blood is Seamus’s anymore. Someone with olive-coloured focusers and silver hair appears in the corner of his vision.

Nana…?

The world finally drops into darkness.

Toby wakes up to the faint smell of the hospital. He opens his eyes to recognise the med-wing on Akiridion-5. It takes him another moment to remember why he’s here. When he does, he shoots into a sitting position and immediately regrets it when pain flares from the wound on his side.

“Good morning, Toby-pie,” chirps Nana from the side of his bed.

“Nana...?” he mumbles.

“You took quite a beating, dearie,” she says, reaching over to brush his hair out of his face. “How are you feeling?”

“Fine,” he says. Bruised. His side and face hurt, but he’s alive. He adjusts to a more comfortable position and glances around. Seamus is in another bed next to him, asleep or unconscious. It takes Toby a second to recognise the boy asleep between their beds, arms reaching in both directions to keep a hand on each bed. He doesn’t know why Krel is still in his disguise, here on Akiridion-5. Claire is awake on the other side of his bed, with Blinky and Aaarrrgghh!!!.

“Jim?” he asks.

Claire shakes her head. Her lips move to form syllables, but no sound comes out for several moments. She swallows and finally shakes her head again.

“We had to leave him,” she mumbles.

Toby expected that, but it still hurts. He’s not sure he wants to know, because as long as he doesn’t know he can still pretend, but he makes himself ask anyway. “Steve?”

“We… lost him too,” she admits.

Toby feels tears gather. That’s it, then. They lost Steve.

“Do not despair, Tobias,” says Blinky. “We will get them back.”

“Maybe Jim,” says Toby. Merlin wanted Steve dead. Toby doesn’t know how long he’s been out, but it’s been long enough. Steve is probably already dead, and it’s their fault for leaving him behind. He angrily wipes his eyes. “We lost pretty bad, huh?”

“Arcadia is Merlin’s,” Blinky rumbles grimly. “But, he still doesn’t know where the formstone is – I trust young Krel hasn’t told Steven?”

“Not that I know of,” says Toby, which is basically a confirmation. Toby’s been there since Krel – got back – so he’d know if Krel had told Steve. Part of him almost wishes he had. If Merlin thought Steve knew, if Steve could convince Merlin that he was valuable – but no. Even if Steve had the information, he’d never give it up, and torture would be worse than death. Toby doesn’t want that for his friend.

There’s movement from Seamus’s bed, and a few seconds later, the wizard shoots up with gasp. His left hand goes to his bandaged right arm, sitting in a tight sling. Toby realises for the first time that both of them are dressed in Akiridion clothes, Toby in some sort of crop-top that exposes his bandaged side, Seamus in a tank-top that reveals his injured arm. Seamus’s rough awakening manages to startle Krel from his sleep as well.

“You’re awake!” he exclaims, glancing from Seamus to Toby and back to Seamus. It sounds super weird hearing Krel’s voice come out of a stranger’s mouth. “How are you guys feeling?”

“Like I got stabbed,” says Seamus dryly. He frowns. “Steve. We – he’s still there, isn’t he?”

Krel’s expression falls. He looks pointedly at a spot on the floor. Seamus runs his good hand through his hair and leans back.

“Then that’s it,” he says softly. He doesn’t say what Toby knows he’s thinking, what they’re all thinking, and Toby’s glad. It would make it all the more awful to hear it out loud, no matter how true it already is.

He turns his attention to Krel. “How is Aja taking it?”

Krel winces. “She’s, uh. Not. I don’t know.”

“She’d talk to you,” Toby says. “If anyone, she’d talk to you.”

Krel’s wince deepens. “She wouldn’t talk to me. As far as she knows, I’m Seamus’s brother and Krel Tarron is still dead.”

_“Krel_!”

“Wait, why are you my brother?” Seamus asks.

“I wanted the doctors to let me in here,” offers Krel unhelpfully. “It was an easy excuse. Just – what’s the saying? – just ride with it.”

“Roll with it,” Seamus corrects.

“That’s not important!” Toby exclaims. “You haven’t told Aja!?”

“Not yet,” Krel says. He wraps his arms around his torso and looks away. “I – I don’t know what to tell her. How to tell her.”

“Try, hey, Aja, I’m not dead after all,” suggests Seamus. “Surprise!”

“Oh, yeah, _that _will go over well,” mutters Krel. He sighs angrily. “Maybe I should just wait until this all calms down.”

“If you don’t tell her, I will,” Toby warns. “No more secrets and lies. Not from family.”

Krel nods, face still guilty enough that Toby isn’t convinced he’ll talk to Aja. He’ll just make it worse for himself if he doesn’t. Part of Toby wonders if there’s more to it, if maybe Krel… doesn’t expect to survive all this. Part of Toby also doesn’t expect to survive all this, so he gets it, and he gets wanting to spare Aja the pain of losing him again, but Toby’s going to do everything in his power to keep the rest of his friends alive. He won’t fail them again, not like he’d failed Krel, like he’d failed Jim, like he’d failed Steve.

“Wait,” he says. He turns to Nana with a frown. “Nana, did I see you at the battle?”

“Well, yes,” she says. “These old bones still have a bit of fight left in them.”

“How did you avoid the stasis spell?” Toby asks.

“Please, I was a magical spy in World War One, I know how to avoid _stasis spells_,” she scoffs.

Toby opens his mouth to say that this makes sense, except– “_Magical_? Wait, wait, wait, back up. You’re a _wizard_!”

“Of course,” she says. “Retired, of course. How do you think my cookies are so good?”

“_Whaaaaaaa–_”

“You know a ton of wizards, Toby, this isn’t that huge,” Seamus says amusedly.

“Yes, it is!”

Krel laughs, but he sobers quickly and pulls his knees to his chest on the chair. “How are we ever going to beat Merlin?”

“Try to stay heartened,” says Blinky. “We will figure something out. And we _will_ get Master Jim and Steven back.”

Toby’s not so sure they will – at least, not Steve – but he tries to convince himself Blinky’s right. They’ll figure something out. They’ll save Jim and Steve and all the mind-controlled trolls. They won’t die. The thought feels unrealistic, but they’ve done the impossible before.

He glances around again, ignoring the sting of the bandaged cut on his face. “Where’s Mort and Douxie? And Ikram and Nimue? Usually at least Mort goes all Papa Bear on us when we get hurt.”

“Ikram and Nimue are talking to Aja, I think,” says Krel. His face falls and he looks pointedly at the ground again. “Douxie is with Mort. In another room. He’s – Mort’s in... pretty bad shape. He was hurt in the fight.”

Toby swallows. Right. He’d seen Mort go down, but it never occurred to him that it was – bad. “Oh.”

“He'll be okay,” Claire rushes to assure him. “But it was kind of scary at first. It was kind of scary for all three of you. You – lost a lot of blood, Tobes.”

It almost hurts to hear her call him that, after they’d lost Jim. Claire’s his friend, one of his best friends, but she’s not Jim and she never will be. Jim’s been there for him for so longer. Toby can’t imagine what life would be like if they can’t get him back. Toby’s anger at Merlin only multiplies the more he thinks of it, the more he thinks of all the wizard’s done, of how much he’s hurt Toby’s friends.

“We’re going to make Merlin pay,” Toby growls.

Krel presses his lips together and nods. “Yes. We are.”


	23. Readying the Troops

“You’ve got to tell her.”

“I know.”

“You’ve got to tell her _soon_.”

“I _know_.”

In Krel’s defence, he _wants_ to tell Aja he’s alive. He just doesn’t know how. He feels like just walking up to her and turning the transduction off would be kind of tactless. And right now, with two of his friends in the med-wing, with Steve… still on Earth, with the threat of Merlin looming, he just doesn’t know if it’s a good time. What if he tells her, and then just – goes and gets himself killed the next time they face Merlin? That would be so much worse for Aja. He doesn’t want that for her. It feels like a terrifyingly real possibility, that he could die, that they could all die. That Merlin could win. Krel tries to push the thought out of his head, but it lingers sourly anyway.

“Look, Krel, you can’t just not tell her you’re alive,” says Seamus. He tries to cross his arms, but by his wince this fails spectacularly so he settles for resting his uninjured arm on top of the sling. They’re both trying to be quiet, because Toby’s sleeping, but Toby can also sleep through anything, so it’s not too much of a worry. “She’s your sister.”

“I know, Seamus,” Krel says for what feels like the hundredth time. “I just don’t know if now is – the right time.”

“When will be?” Seamus says. Then he gestures at Krel with his good hand. “Besides, you can’t fight Merlin looking like… this.”

“Why not?”

“You’re bad enough at fighting in your Akiridion form,” Seamus points out.

“Thanks,” Krel says flatly.

“And this isn’t even your normal human form,” Seamus continues, as if Krel hadn’t spoken. “You’re not really used to it. Makes you an easier target.”

Okay. Seamus does have a point. He’s really not the best fighter, and he’d noticed it was much harder to fight in an unfamiliar body. He’d stayed in the air as much as he could, because manoeuvring off the ground had much fewer differences between forms.

“How much does Aja know about what happened?” Krel asks carefully.

“If you’re asking about Gaylen’s core, we didn’t tell her that,” says Seamus. “But you should probably mention it. That’s an important detail.”

“She’s going to kill me.”

“Nah, she’ll be too happy you’re alive.” Seamus adjusts his sling. It’s kind of dumb for him to talk about not being able to fight when he was just stabbed. Personally, Krel thinks Seamus definitely shouldn’t join in the fight next time, and neither should Toby, but he knows neither of them will listen to him or the doctors. “Look. She’s your sister. She misses you. She’s not going to be mad at you – well, maybe a little, because she was pissed at us for not telling her. But she’ll be thrilled you’re alive.”

“I guess,” says Krel. “Just – how do I tell her? What do I _say_?”

“I don’t think you’ll have to say much,” says Seamus. He gives Krel a fond smile. “Dude, just go hug your sister already.”

Krel sighs. “Alright, alright, I’ll go. But if she kills me, don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

“I’d say I’d come to your funeral, but I’ve already done that, so…”

Krel maturely sticks his tongue out at his friend – Toby taught him that one – and leaves the room. He pauses outside the med-wing and takes a deep breath, before going to search for Aja. He migrates, instinctively, towards the star-deck. He knows his sister well, and – sure enough – he finds Aja sitting inside, knees pulled to her chest and staring up at the constellations. He hesitates again in the doorway, his last chance to back out, but forces himself to walk in. She glances back at his footsteps. He freezes.

“Seamus’s brother, right?” she says. “I didn’t get your name.”

Krel opens his mouth to reply, and he nearly lies and makes up a name on the spot, but Seamus is right. She deserves to know. He swallows and lets out a shaky breath, then pulls out his serrator to turn off the transduction.

“Actually, I’m not _Seamus’s_ brother,” he says, as the transduction flashes away. Aja sucks in a sharp gasp. He manages a weak smile. “Hi, Aja.”

She stands, two hands going to cover her mouth and eyes welling with tears. She shakes her head and takes a half-step back. “Impossible. You’re – you’re dead. I saw your core. I – held your core.”

“A fake,” Krel says, as if that could possibly make up for all the pain she must have gone through. She continues staring at him, tears slipping down her cheeks as she takes in his form. He suddenly feels self-conscious about his injuries. He wishes he’d borrowed a shirt from someone or something like that, something to hide the burns marring so much of his skin. “Aja, I’m sorry–”

She cuts him off with a wordless cry and launches forward to hug him. Krel rests his hands on her back as she shakes with relieved sobs, closing his eyes and realising how much he’s missed his sister and her support. He can’t imagine – doesn’t want to imagine what she must have felt like. He would have been absolutely shattered in her place. Losing Aja would be – unthinkably awful.

She finally pulls away and wipes her eyes. As she examines his face she looks like she might start crying all over again, but instead her expression shifts into a sharp glare. Ah. Here comes the anger he was expecting. And Seamus thought she’d be too relieved to be mad. Aja is good at being mad with other emotions at the same time. She calls it multi-tasking.

“Don’t ever do that again!” she exclaims. She punches his shoulder – thankfully his unburned one. “I thought you were dead! I thought – I thought I lost you, Krel!”

“I know,” he says. “I’m sorry. And I’m sorry I didn’t tell you sooner, but I figured out about Merlin and had to go tell the others and then the fight and–”

“I understand,” she says softly. She wipes her eyes. “You’re here now. Thank Seklos.”

Krel almost corrects her, but while he knows he needs to explain the Gaylen thing, he’s not sure that’s the way to do it. He needs to be careful how he says it. Aja’s going to be mad either way. Well. Madder.

“What happened?” she asks. He almost launches into a full explanation of the Knight situation, only to realise that the others probably already told her about that. She probably wants to know where he’d been when everyone thought he was dead, why he hadn’t been there to prove them wrong.

“I was captured,” he says. “By the Knights. They were going to bring me to Merlin – the evil wizard, the one you saw. I guess they made a fake or something and left it there. It – must have been a very good one.”

“You escaped,” she says.

“Yeah,” he confirms. “I – don’t completely know how, but I did. And then some nice trolls found me and helped treat my injuries.”

She raises a hand as if to touch his face, but stops short of the burns. “The Knights did this to you.”

“The fire,” he says. “But I guess that was the Knights’ fault. I’m okay, Aja.”

“You should have told me about the Knights,” Aja says, voice hardening.

Krel looks away. “You were busy. And we had it handled. I thought.”

“Had it handled?” Aja repeats incredulously. “I hear barely anything from you for parsons, and then the next time you come to Akiridion-5 you’re unconscious! And then you leave, and not even a delson later, you’re–”

Her words catch. She blinks back tears and narrows her eyes.

“Don’t tell me you had it handled,” she says.

“I thought we did,” he says helplessly. “I wanted you to think we did. I – you’ve always protected me. I guess I just wanted to prove I could take care of myself. I guess I did a pretty bad job at that.”

Aja softens, somewhat. “I know you can take care of yourself.”

“Do you, though?” he challenges. “If I had told you about the Knights right away, would you have let us at least try to handle it? Or would you have come running back to Earth?”

“I would have come to Earth,” she admits. “But of course I would have! You’re my little brother, I’m supposed to – oh.”

Krel smiles wryly. That’s what he thought. “Yeah. Oh.”

“It’s not that I don’t think you can handle it,” she says.

“But it’s part of it,” Krel says. “You don’t have to lie to me, Aja. I know you don’t think I can protect myself. And I think I’ve only proven that.”

She’s silent for a moment. He looks away again, up at the constellations, eyes landing hesitantly on the Runaway, closest in the fake sky above him. It’s almost ironic. Aja lays a hand on his shoulder. “You’re still here.”

He glances at her. “Yeah.”

“Despite everything, you’re still here,” Aja repeats. She gently traces her fingers over the edge of the burns, careful not to hurt him, eyes sad. “I think that proves something. You’re stronger than you – than _I _thought. And I’m proud of you.”

Krel smiles again, this time genuine as he meets his sister’s eyes. “Yeah. I guess you’re right.”

She pulls him into another hug, this time shorter but still just as heartfelt. Krel’s missed his sister, more than he’d ever admit to her, even if she is a bit over-protective and definitely angry at him right now. It’s good to have her in the know again. He didn’t like keeping secrets from her.

“I’m so glad you’re alive,” she murmurs. “I love you, little brother.”

“I love you too,” he says.

“And if you ever die on me again, I will find a way to bring you back,” she threatens, pulling back and crossing all four arms.

He rolls his eyes. He’s heard _this_ before. “I know, I know, so you can kill me yourself.”

“What? No!” she exclaims. “Why would I do that?”

“That’s what Steve keeps saying.”

“Steve’s threatening to _kill you_!?”

“No! It’s a figure of speech!”

Aja’s face falls and she wraps her arms around herself. “Steve told me the evil wizard wanted him dead.”

Krel flinches. “Yeah.”

“I broke up with him,” she says, fingers digging into her upper arms. She blinks rapidly. “I thought – you were dead and – and - the last thing I ever said to him was – I – I told him to leave. And now he’s still on Earth with the wizard that wants him dead. So that means…”

Krel glances back up at the constellations. The Martyr twinkles mockingly above him. Krel forces himself to look away from it. This is his fault. Steve pushed him out of the way, saved _him_, and now Steve is – is–

“I should have saved him,” says Krel. He could have, too. If he’d just broken free of Barbara and the troll – whose name he still didn’t know – and let his powers loose, he could have saved Steve. _Surely_ he could have saved Steve.

“How could you have?” says Aja. “No one stood a chance against that wizard.”

“If I just knew how my powers–” he stops himself, eyes widening, and he presses his lips closed and stares at Aja as her brow furrows. Kleb.

“Powers…?” she repeats slowly.

“Aja, I–”

He’s saved from explaining right away. The door to the star-deck opens, and loud footsteps sound as Varvatos storms in, followed rapidly by Zadra. Zadra begins speaking before even surveying the room. “Your majesty, I believe the humans and trolls would like to discuss – _Krel_?”

“Krel!” shouts Varvatos, running forward and picking Krel up in a hug. Krel grins as he’s lifted off his feet by the bigger Akiridion. “You’re alive! Don’t ever scare Varvatos like that again! Not that Varvatos was scared, mind you.”

“Great Gaylen’s core,” breathes Zadra. Varvatos puts him down, and she cups a hand to the unburned side of his face. “Is it really you?”

Krel laughs uneasily. “In more ways than one.”

“What does _that_ mean?” Aja asks. She spins him around to face her. “No more secrets, Krel.”

Krel winces, but he nods and looks between his sister and Varvatos and Zadra.

“Remember how we thought we destroyed Gaylen’s core with Morando?” he says.

Aja’s frown deepens. “Yes. I do.”

“Well, we didn’t,” says Krel. “I found it in the woods, and I – brought it home to study.”

“_What_?” Aja breathes.

“That was highly irresponsible,” Zadra says. Apparently she’s already over the fact he’s alive and back to disapproving his life choices. “Why did you not bring it here?”

“I thought it could be useful,” says Krel. Maybe it was irresponsible, but they needed all the help they could get with the Knights, and something had drawn him to it. In retrospect, everything, the dreams, the connection, it all makes sense knowing he’s Gaylen’s heir. Too much sense. He almost wonders how much of bringing it home had been scientific curiosity and how much had been the connection he had to it. “But we couldn’t figure anything out, every test we simulated exploded, but things also kept getting worse with the Knights, so I – I didn’t think there was any other choice. I _don’t_ think there was any other choice.”

Unconsciously, he brings a hand to cover his core; he’s still not quite used to its energy yet, to the buzz of it that’s almost like it used to be but different all the same. Aja’s eyes follow the motion, and a few moments later she sucks in a rough breath.

“You didn’t,” she says.

“I… did,” he admits.

“Even more irresponsible!” Varvatos roars. Great. All of them are angry at him. He kind of expected that. “You saw what that did to Morando! You could have–”

“But I didn’t! And I wouldn’t have!” Krel cuts in. “Gaylen’s core is my burden to bear, and it always has been, whether any of us knew it or not.”

“House Tarron’s burden,” Aja corrects harshly. “And a dangerous one.”

“No,” says Krel. “_My_ burden. _I_ am Gaylen’s heir. Not you. I’m the one who’s always been stuck with this – this destiny that I didn’t know about and I don’t want, just like you have to be queen.”

“What do you mean, Gaylen’s _heir_?” demands Zadra.

“I mean – I spoke to Gaylen and that’s what he told me.” Krel shrugs, half-heartedly, arms wrapping around his torso. His still-healing burns throb. “And I think Mama and Papa knew, too. I just wish they had told me. But this was my destiny. It’s not something any of you could have protected me from or stopped me from doing. It was the only choice.”

Zadra looks like she wants to say something else, maybe scold him more, maybe argue more, but instead she huffs and throws her hands down. Varvatos shakes his head. “Integrating with Gaylen’s core was far too risky.”

“It’s already done,” Krel bites out. “It’s been done for a while now. I made my choice, and I’m living with it.”

“Is that why they brought you here?” Aja asks quietly. She isn’t looking at him, which can’t be a good sign. “Is that why you were doing all that – that research? And why the doctors thought there was something wrong with your core?”

Krel curls his arms tighter around himself. “Yeah.”

She turns to him, searching his eyes. Something in her expression changes. Maybe she’s noticed the white that his friends say is there now. Maybe she’s realised that he’s – not the same anymore. She looks sad and scared at the same time. He’s not used to this much vulnerability from his sister.

“Why didn’t you tell me then?”

“I wanted to,” he says. “But then you’d ask why I felt the need to – do it – and then I would have had to tell you about the wizard stuff. And I didn’t want to tell you about that.”

She doesn’t audibly respond to that, but the look on her face says it all. Part of Krel – most of Krel regrets not telling her sooner. Maybe things wouldn’t have gone so badly with Aja there. Maybe he really couldn’t handle it. He should have known better than to try.

“What were you saying when you came in?” Aja asks Zadra. The sudden change of subject is not lost on Krel. He tries to pretend it doesn’t sting. He hurt her, too, by not telling her. By not trusting her to trust him.

“The humans and trolls have gathered to start planning,” says Zadra. “We are needed.”

“Then let’s go,” she says, pulling herself into a regal stance. She looks like Mama, so much like Mama that Krel’s core hurts. “We have a wizard to stop.”

The others have all gathered in Mort’s med-wing room. It’s a tight fit for all of them, but the doctors won’t let a grumbling Mort leave the bed yet so it’s really their only option. Seamus and Toby both look pleased to see Krel walk in looking like himself again. They look less pleased at Aja’s expression. Krel sits beside Seamus – he takes it as a small comfort that Aja still willingly sits beside him. At least she’s not so angry that she would start avoiding him. She’s only done that once, keltons ago, and in retrospect the situation seems childish and petty compared to everything that’s happened recently, compared to Gaylen’s core and the Knights and all the reasons Aja has to be upset now.

“She looks mad,” Seamus mumbles to him, careful not to let Aja hear.

“Gaylen’s core,” Krel mutters back.

Seamus grimaces. “Ah. Yep, that’d do it.”

“Thank you for coming, your majesty,” Mort greets Aja. His voice is rough, probably because he’s been unconscious until just recently. Krel hates to see him looking so vulnerable in the med-wing bed, wrapped in bandages across his torso, hair out of its usual pony-tail. Douxie sits closest to him, fiddling with the sleeve of his hoodie, Archie perched on his lap and looking just as worried as his wizard.

“Earth was a refuge for us,” says Aja. “We won’t let it get destroyed now.”

Mort inclines his head, then waves his uninjured arm – the other one in a sling like Seamus’s – to create a glowing, magical hologram of Arcadia. Krel could have done that with tech. Actually, maybe he should have done that with tech. He’s not sure Mort should be using magic in the state he’s in, still healing from far too many injuries. He knows the doctors say he should be – healed enough – by tomorrow, but he also knows Douxie has been arguing with his uncle about fighting. Krel is on Douxie’s side that Mort should sit it out, injured like this, but he also knows that without Mort they _really_ don’t stand a chance.

“Merlin has the citizens of Arcadia frozen,” Mort says. “We have to assume he doesn’t want to harm them. This simplifies our job. Our objectives are to stop Merlin from getting the formstone and save our brainwashed friends. Saving the formstone must take precedence."

Krel shoots out of his seat. “What? No. Saving our friends takes precedence!”

“Sit down, Krel,” says Ikram. “The fate of the world has to come first. You know that.”

“So, what?” Krel snaps. “We leave Jim and the trolls under Merlin’s control? We leave Steve to _die_?”

Toby flinches. Nimue shakes her head. “Krel, I – I don’t think we’ll be able to save Steve.”

“We’re going to save Steve,” Krel says forcefully. “We’re going to save all of them.”

Seamus tugs his lower arm to get him to sit back down. “Mort’s right, Krel. We can’t put their lives over the world. They’d never forgive us.”

Krel sits. He sees Seamus’s point, but he can’t stand the thought that they might not be able to save their friends. Especially Steve, the brother he never expected to have, who’d saved him and gotten captured because of it. But he knows that in Steve’s place he wouldn’t want them to give up the world to save him.

“Krel,” says Mort. “We need to know where the formstone is. And then we need to ensure that none of us get captured so we can’t give it away… under duress.”

Toby laughs uneasily. “Torture. You mean torture, don’t you?”

“Yes,” Mort agrees. “I mean torture.”

Krel glances around the room and sighs. “Zoom in on the bridge.”

“Oh, you’ve got to be kidding me,” says Toby.

“It’s here,” says Krel, standing and walking to the spot. He can almost feel the warm tug of the formstone back on Earth, oh-so-familiar and warm. “We were almost right on top of it when we faced Merlin.”

“Don’t you just love the irony,” mutters Seamus.

“Okay,” says Mort. “So we’ll need Krel and a squad to protect the formstone at all costs.”

Seamus raises a hand, as if they’re still in school. Mort stares at him in what seems to be utter disbelief for a few moments.

“Seamus, this isn’t class,” he says. “You don’t need to raise your hand.”

“Uh, right,” says Seamus, freckled face colouring red. “Okay, question. If Krel’s, like, the only one who can get to the formstone, don’t we want him as far away from it as possible?”

“Yeah,” says Claire. “That’s like putting the key right next to the lock.”

“Krel’s also one of our heaviest hitters if it comes to a fight,” says Mort. He pauses. “I – presume you’ve told your sister.”

“He has,” says Aja shortly.

Mort nods. “Excellent. If it comes down to it, we need the firepower there.”

“Um, I also have a question, or maybe a counter-point,” says Krel, because Mort’s very much implying that Krel would stand half a chance in a fight against Merlin and he definitely would not. “I still have no idea how to use my powers.”

“Strong emotion, you said,” Seamus points out. “Just get really angry. Hulk out on us, bro.”

“What?”

“Dude, I have so many movies I have to show you,” Seamus says, shaking his head in disappointment.

“While Krel and his squad guard the formstone, the rest of us will need to fan out and find Merlin,” Mort cuts back in. “Try to minimise casualties, but keeping the formstone out of Merlin’s hands is our priority.”

“Okay, but how are we going to stop Merlin?” Eli asks. “I don’t think any of us stand a chance against him. I mean, Mort, aren’t you like a super powerful wizard and you _still_ ended up in the hospital.”

“We’ll manage,” says Mort.

“Has anyone ever stood a chance against this… Merlin?” Aja crosses her upper arms. “Does he have any weaknesses?”

“Well…” says Toby, drawing out the word like he doesn’t want to continue his idea. He does anyway. “There is one person.”

Claire frowns. Blinky and Aaarrrgghh!!! exchange wary looks. Mort scowls instantly.

“Oh, no,” he says. “No, absolutely not, we are not getting _her_ help.”

"Come on, man, she's your aunt!” Toby insists. “If anyone can talk her into helping us and not causing the Eternal Night, it's you!"

“No, no, no, my aunt and I have not been on speaking terms since long before she was trapped in the Heartstone,” says Mort. “I say good riddance to her. I do not want her back.”

“We don’t like Morgana any more than you do,” says Claire. “But if she can help us stop Merlin…”

Mort huffs and throws up his good arm. “Fine! Your funerals! But don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

“Alright!” says Toby. “Krel! How do you feel about opening a portal to another realm?”

All eyes fall on him. Krel gives them a wide-eyed stare.

“What?” he says. “You guys are looking at me like you expect me to be able to break all laws of space, time, and physics!"

They continue staring back at him. He thinks about his statement for a moment, and ninety percent of the things he’s done in the past couple of months.

“Just give me a few hours,” he says.

“At least we’ve got the start of a plan this time,” says Nimue. “We’ll leave as soon as we’re ready.”

Krel tells himself that means soon. They can’t wait – not with the entire Earth at stake. Not with Steve’s life actively in danger every second they wait. He curls his fists on his legs and nods.

“Soon,” he says.

He spends the rest of the day working with Claire and Mort to try to figure out the portal to what they call the Shadow Realm. He doesn’t exactly know what that means, only that he’s going to need to find some way to combine science and magic to do it. Claire casually tells them about the time she got possessed by this Morgana. Neither this story nor Mort’s expression make Krel feel at all confident in bringing Morgana in as an ally.

He can’t sleep that night. He sits in his room tinkering with the device they’re building, trying to make sure it will work. He’s too anxious to sleep. Someone will probably yell at him for it tomorrow, but he can’t bring himself to care. He’s not going to fall asleep anyway. He might as well do something useful.

There’s a light knock on his door.

“Come in,” he calls. Toby peeks his head in, then walks over to sit beside Krel on his bed. Krel raises an eyebrow and gestures to the bandages around his friend’s torso. “Shouldn’t you be resting?”

“Can’t sleep,” says Toby. “Figured you’d be in the same boat.”

“We’re not in a boat,” Krel says. They both know he knows it’s just an expression, but it’s nice to watch his friend’s lips twitch upward anyway.

“This is it,” Toby says. “Tomorrow’s the big day.”

“This is it,” Krel agrees. “Win or lose, this is it.”

“We’re going to win.” Toby shifts into a more comfortable position. “We have to win.”

Krel leans back on his upper arms, pulling the device closer to himself with his lower ones. “At what cost, though? I – if it comes down to the formstone or one of you – one of my friends – I don’t think I can make that choice.”

“I get it, man,” says Toby. “I don’t know. Hopefully it won’t come to that.”

“I can’t lose you guys,” Krel says. To his alarm, he feels tears gathering in his eyes. He tries to blink them back, but instead they spill over and he angrily wipes them away. “I’ve never had so many people to care about, and now I could lose all of you.”

“We’re going to get through this.” Toby hugs him. Krel is distressed to find he can’t stop crying, not now that he’s started. He hates that he has tears to cry now, when he didn’t just a few months ago, but in a way it does make him feel – almost human. More a part of his new home. He hugs his friend back and tries to regain some semblance of control over his emotions. After a few minutes, it works, enough that he can breathe without more tears, at least.

“Steve’s dead, isn’t he?” he asks quietly. Toby’s grip tightens. “He saved me. And Merlin’s killed him by now.”

“It’s not your fault,” says Toby. Krel doesn’t miss the way he doesn’t contradict him. The tears come anew. It’s not fair. It’s not fair that after everything they’ve been through, they’d lose Steve like this, that it would be Krel’s fault, even though he knows Steve wouldn’t want him to blame himself. Krel desperately wants to believe he’s still alive, that Merlin’s keeping him alive for some reason. Krel can’t think of a reason, but maybe that’s because he’s not an evil wizard. Surely there’s a reason, and then they’ll rescue Steve and save the day and everything will be okay. He’s having a hard time convincing himself.

“I wish – I wish things were different,” Krel manages. “I wish I could _do_ something. Mort wants me to be a ‘heavy-hitter’ and I don’t think I’ll be able to, and everyone wants me to be able to put the world first and I just – my _friends_. I’ve never had friends. I can’t lose you – more of you.”

“I – can’t promise everyone’s going to be okay,” Toby admits. That’s kind of the last thing Krel wanted to hear, but he’s grateful for his friend’s honesty nonetheless. “I can’t even promise we’ll win. I’m as worried as you are. But we’ve got to do our best anyway. We can’t let our fear stop us from giving our all. We’ll never stop Merlin if we do.”

“What am I supposed to do if you – if any of you–” Krel can’t bring himself to say it. He chokes on a sob. “I can’t do this, Toby.”

“Yes, you can.” Toby pulls away and rests his hands on Krel’s shoulders. His friend looks more serious than Krel’s ever seen him, the blue light of Krel’s room turning his green eyes teal and highlighting the scarring cut on his face. “I know you can. I know _we _can. And if someone – doesn’t make it – then you keep going, and you use it to fuel you, and you do your best, because that’s all you can do.”

“I’m scared,” Krel admits in a small voice.

“We all are,” says Toby. “But we’re going to be okay. Somehow.”

Krel swallows back more tears and nods. “Okay.”

“You should get some sleep,” says Toby. “Tomorrow is going to be a long day.”

“You should too,” he says. Then, hesitantly, he adds, “Stay?”

Toby smiles sadly at him. “You couldn’t make me leave if you tried.”


	24. The Arcadian Revolution

Steve wakes up, which is kind of the biggest surprise about the whole situation. He expected, after being captured, that Merlin would just kill him. That was his goal, wasn’t it? Maybe he wants to gloat. That would make sense.

He’s in Trollmarket. Brainwashed trolls mull about, standing guard or something. Jim is in front of him, back turned. Steve hates seeing his friend controlled like this. To think, once upon a time he’d thought _Jim_ was _evil_. It’s something he can’t even imagine now.

He hopes the rest of his friends are okay. Toby and Seamus were both – injured. Badly. Steve remembers all the blood and feels sick. He tells himself they’re going to be okay, that the Akiridion doctors will take care of it. He can’t let himself believe otherwise, believe that two of his friends are dead.

Okay. He has to get out of here. Maybe he can get through to Jim and Jim can let him out. He shifts – oh, hey, he’s tied up, that’s great – and coughs to get Jim’s attention.

“Jim,” he hisses. “Jim! Hey! It’s me! Your pal, Steve. Remember? I used to be a bit of a buttsnack – okay, a huge buttsnack – but we’re buddies now, yeah? Lemme out!”

As almost expected, he gets no response.

“It’s me,” he says again. “Steve. Your buddy.”

Still nothing.

“It’s _me_,” he stresses. “_Steve_. Your – I AM YOUR FRIEND.”

And nothing again. He’s not surprised. Not even Toby had been able to get through to him. If not even his best friend can get through to him, Jim’s super gone and Steve is – super screwed. He’s not sure when the others will be back – he guesses it depends on how long it takes them to heal – and he has no idea how long Merlin’s planning to keep him alive. Probably not long enough for his friends to save him.

“Okay, Steve, think, think,” he mutters to himself. He needs a plan. He is not the plan guy. Krel is the plan guy, except when he’s not and he does something stupid like integrate with Gaylen’s core. Even then, actually, he’s the plan guy, he’s just the bad plan guy.

He can’t break through to Jim. Fine. He didn’t really expect to be able to, anyway. He can’t wait for his friends. He’ll almost definitely be dead by the time they get here. So far, the best and only plan he can come up with is making a run for it arms tied and hoping not to get skewered or something along the way. His second-best plan is trying some ill-advised magic and hoping it doesn’t explode. Or is that actually his best plan? He’s so not good at this.

“There’s no use trying to escape,” says an unfortunately familiar voice. “You won’t get very far.”

“Still better than waiting on you to kill me,” Steve mutters. He'd rather die on his own terms trying to get back to his friends than get murdered while tied up and defenceless.

“I presume I need not introduce myself,” says Merlin.

“Oh, yeah, no intros needed,” Steve says. “I know all about you and what you did to Jim. Oh, and how you’ve been trying to kill us for the past _month_.”

“Well, not all of you,” Merlin hedges, as if that might make Steve feel a little better about being captured by a crazy wizard who wants him dead. “I do want your alien friend alive.”

“He’s Akiridion,” Steve corrects scathingly. “Alien is an offensive term.”

He doesn’t get a response from this. He huffs and shifts to a slightly more comfortable position. The cut on his cheek stings.

“Why are you doing this, anyway?” he demands. “Using the formstone will destroy the Earth! You live on the Earth!”

“The formstone will grant me unbelievable magic, boy,” says Merlin. “I simply won’t allow the Earth to be destroyed. I need a place to rule, don’t I?”

Ignoring the pure overconfidence of that – seriously, Merlin thinks he’ll be able to drain the formstone and keep the Earth intact? – at least Steve has a sort of idea of what Merlin’s plan is. Take over the world. Standard villain.

“And what does that have to do with me?” he asks. “Why kill me?”

“I knew your – what is it now? Many times great-grandfather, I expect,” says Merlin. “King Arthur. The one true king of England – made him arrogant, if you ask me.”

“Ah, yes, you’re definitely the expert on arrogance,” Steve says dryly.

Merlin doesn’t react to his subtle jab. “He gets a sword from a stone and suddenly he’s king of the land! Pah. I believe he who has the power should be he who rules. Arthur was a _mundane_. I thought – shortly – that perhaps his son Mordred would make a better king one day, but Arthur gave the throne to his first-born. A _girl_.”

“Sexist and power-hungry, great personality you’ve got there.” Steve can’t honestly imagine Mort as a king, anyway. Mort’s awesome and all, but he gets frustrated enough with a group of teenagers. “Okay, so you’re mad about something that happened like a thousand years ago and you’re taking it out on me? That’s super lame, man.”

“Once I kill you – and Mordred, since that pesky princeling is still alive after all – there will be no one to contest my rule,” Merlin says.

Steve states at him. He actually thinks – wow. He’s more of a big-headed buttsnack than Steve thought.

“You do know that England doesn’t equal the world, right?” he says. “There’s like a gazillion other world leaders.”

“That won’t matter,” says Merlin. “Once I have the power of the formstone, the world will have no choice but to bow to me.”

“I feel like we’re going in circles, because I’m stuck at the whole killing me thing again,” says Steve. “If you’re so convinced you’ll be unstoppable, why do you need me out of the way? Clearly, I’m very stoppable.”

“It’s the principle of the thing,” Merlin snaps.

“Fine, fine, okay,” says Steve. “So why _aren’t_ I dead yet?”

“Because I need you as leverage,” Merlin says. “Your alien friend, he’s not particularly attached to my Trollhunter, is he?”

“Again, it’s Akiridion,” Steve shoots back. “And don’t call Jim _your_ Trollhunter.”

“That is what he is,” says Merlin.

“Anyway, Krel will never help you!” Steve hopes he sounds more confident than he feels. If there’s one thing that will get to Krel, it’s his friends – Steve knows he hasn’t had many, if any before he came to Arcadia, and he’s pretty sure there’s almost nothing Krel wouldn’t do to keep his friends safe. It’s almost, like, storybook heroic of him, and it’s a great quality to have in any other situation, if he were any other person who didn’t have the key to the end of the world.

Merlin hums and raises an eyebrow. “Well, we’ll see about that, won’t we?”

“Yeah,” says Steve. “We’ll see that I’m right! Because I am!”

For the record, Steve knows very well that he’s not right, and besides which, it’s not a choice he wants Krel to have to make. He’s going to have to eliminate the choice somehow. He has to escape or – well – die trying.

“Well, once I have what I want, it shall be a _pleasure_ to kill you,” says Merlin, unsheathing a long, thin sword – or maybe summoning it, because Steve did not see a sword before. It doesn’t look to be made of magic like the weapons all his wizard friends can conjure. He holds it out speculatively. “With your own ancestor’s sword. What do you think?”

Yeah, okay. That’s almost funny. Merlin’s going to kill him with the sword he was so mad about earlier. Steve wracks his brain for its name – Expelliarmus? No, that’s from those wizard books he knows Eli loves. Um. He knows this, he swears he knows this.

“Excalibur,” he finally breathes. By the way Merlin’s smile twitches downward, he thinks he’s gotten it right. “Where did you get Excalibur?”

“Who did you think killed King Arthur?” Merlin says.

Steve swallows. Merlin’s smirk returns to its original smug size. Excalibur disappears, and the wizard turns and walks away, leaving Steve alone to plan his escape – or his own death.

It’s probably another hour before Steve decides to screw it and give magic a shot. He’s tried annoying the trolls into letting him go, but none of them even so much as blink at him. It’s eerie to see, and especially eerie to see in Jim. He thinks he’s usually quite talented at getting under Jim’s skin. To get no reaction whatsoever is… weird.

He runs through all the spells Mort’s explicitly taught them, but none of them are specifically useful and he’s not yet desperate enough to potentially blow himself up. Actually, no. He is that desperate.

He tries to focus his magic into his hands and grasps the ropes as best he can. Maybe he can, like, burn them away. He can feel the heat crackle in his palms, but the ropes don’t seem to be affected. Okay. New plan. He tries to will the ropes to disappear. Nothing happens. He tries to will them to unravel. Again, nothing happens.

“Just my luck, magic-proof ropes,” he mutters.

Okay. Next best plan. Maybe he can, like, dislocate something and get his arms to the front and unravel the ropes with his teeth. He saw that on _Earth Invaders _once. It can’t be that hard. Mort’s disapproving frown looms in the back of his mind. Yes, hallucination Mort, Steve _knows_ this is a bad idea. He’s out of good ideas, so he’s trying it anyway.

It goes as well as expected. Steve’s armour prevents him from even lifting his arms above his head the way they’re tied. He groans and leans back with eyes closed.

He doesn’t know how he’s going to get out of this, but he has to. Somehow.

Okay. New plan. Excalibur. It belonged to his great-great-something granddad, right? So technically it should belong to him now. Or Mort, but he doesn’t think Mort would mind if he used it to escape. Now he just has to – get it. How does he get it? Maybe he can, like – summon it? Like Jim can do with his sword. That’s a plan. It’s a terrible plan, but it’s better than any other plans he’s had so there’s that.

Merlin walks by. Steve surges forward as much as he can.

“Hey! Buttsnack! Merlin!” he yells.

To his delight, he does catch the old wizard’s attention. Merlin walks with a scowl. “What do you want, insolent child?”

“I think that sword doesn’t belong to you,” he bluffs.

Merlin raises his eyebrows. “You think I’d just give you Excalibur?”

“I’m not stupid,” Steve scoffs.

“Actually, I would say stupid _is_ the main impression you’ve given me thus far,” Merlin says.

Steve scowls at him. He mentally shakes his head. His idea. He can totally do this.

“You may not give it to me,” he says, mustering up as much bravado as he can manage, “but Excalibur is _mine_ to command!”

He waits. Merlin crosses his arms.

Okay.

New tactic.

He summons all of his energy and manages – by some stroke of dumb luck – to launch himself to his feet. He manages a short laugh at his triumph, before running at Merlin with every intent to just full-on tackle him. Will this probably end with him dead? Yeah. Does he care? Not at all. Okay. Maybe a little. Like, best-case scenario is _not dying_. But, again, he doesn’t want to be bait for Krel, so he guesses second best-case scenario kind of is dying.

Merlin dodges out of the way and draws Excalibur. That’s kind of cocky of him, but, then again, Steve’s pretty sure Merlin’s main character trait is overly arrogant. Well. At least when the plan fails the back-up plan won’t.

Wait.

He has an idea.

It can’t _possibly_ be worse than every other idea he’s ever had. He’s tied up with rope, and maybe it’s magic-proof rope, but is it _sword-proof_? Granted, Steve isn’t sword-proof, but that’s fine. He’s just got to do this right and he won’t have to worry about not being sword-proof.

He runs at Merlin again, but this time when the old wizard raises the sword to strike, Steve twists and does his best to put the rope in his line of attack. And not his hands. It seems pure dumb luck is on his side today, because he feels when the sword shears through the rope and the strands snap, freeing Steve’s arms. Steve stretches delightedly. Merlin snarls.

“Perhaps you’re cleverer than I gave you credit for,” he concedes. “Or luckier.”

Steve is pretty sure it’s all luck, but he’s not going to tell Merlin that. He flares focusers around his hands briefly. He and Merlin circle each other.

“That isn’t your sword,” Steve says again. “You took it from _my_ ancestor. From my family. That sword should be Mort’s.”

“Excalibur was never meant for _Mordred_,” says Merlin.

Fine. If it doesn’t belong to Mort, then–

“Excalibur is my birth-right,” Steve says. He’s only 80% sure he’s using that correctly, but by the way Merlin’s blue eyes darken he gets the gist. “You don’t deserve to put your filthy hands on it.”

“You want the sword, princeling?” Merlin says. Steve flinches at the mocking title. “Come and get it.”

Steve lets out a wordless shout and charges. He still doesn’t really know how to make weapons, but he lets magic surround his fists and forearms and uses that. Even untied, he’s not much match for Merlin. He does an okay job deflecting jabs and slices but that’s about it. He’s not dead. It’s better than he expected.

He jumps back and skids until he’s a few feet from Merlin. He’s not going to be able to win this, not unarmed, but he has one more thing he could maybe try. It will either be really, really epic, or really, really stupid.

“Did you hear me?” he yells, trying to pull his face to look as intimidating as possible and ignoring the way the cut on his cheek protests the movement. “Excalibur belongs to me!”

Merlin has the guts to scoff. Steve’s anger grows from campfire to roaring, angry wildfire. He throws out his sword hand towards Merlin.

“EXCALIBUR!” he screams.

To his utter shock – and to Merlin’s fury – Excalibur lights up golden and flies out of his hand. Steve catches it by the handle and smoothly falls back into one of the proper sword-fighting stances Ikram taught him.

“Insolent child,” growls Merlin. He raises a hand. “TROLLS!”

“Oh, kleb,” Steve says. New plan. Again. Wow, he’s really coming up with a lot of plans today. He runs. He manages to surprise Merlin and the trolls enough to barrel past them. He’s been in Trollmarket running for his life enough times to have a vague idea of the way out. He hears the trolls behind him.

“AFTER HIM!” Merlin roars.

“Kleb, kleb, kleb, kleb,” Steve mutters to himself as he skids around a corner and towards the stairs. Stairs, why does it have to be _stairs_? Now would be a great time to be able to fly.

Somehow, by luck again – he’s actually got good luck today, that’s seriously a first – he manages to make it up the stairs and to the exit. Except there’s no exit, because he needs the horn-whatsit. He gives a strangled, quiet shout and glances back. The trolls are almost up the stairs. He’s super screwed.

Okay, Mort said wizards didn’t need a horn-thingy. Maybe there’s a spell. Magic is all about intent, right?

“Okay, Steve, you can do this,” he mutters. He lets magic gather around his hand, then presses it to the wall. The wall explodes outwards. “Not what I meant to do, but I’ll take it!”

He runs out and scurries into the canal, into the sunlight. Oh, he is _so _glad it’s a sunny day. The trolls and Jim skid to a stop under the bridge, snarling. For the first time, Steve is grateful Jim is a troll.

“We’re going to save you,” Steve says. The trolls don’t respond. He didn’t expect them to. “We’re going to save all of you. I promise.”

He forces himself to turn and walk away, pretending it doesn’t hurt to leave his friend behind in the shadows.

Arcadia feels so wrong. It’s eerily silent and the people look – kinda dead, except that they’re all standing up, which makes it even creepier. He finds his way to his house. Mom and Dad are both frozen in the living room with the TV on, still playing as if nothing happened. Steve turns it off.

“I’m sorry,” he says to them. They can’t hear him. Maybe that’s for the best. “I don’t know what I’m doing, and I’m pretty sure I’m messing it up. But I’m gonna make it right. Even if that means – well, if it comes to that, I’m sorry.”

He hesitates a moment longer, then shakes his head and climbs the stairs to his room. It’s – shocker – a mess, and Steve inwardly curses himself for not cleaning it the last time he was here. He drops Excalibur and digs first through the covers of his bed. Nothing. Come on, he knows it’s here. He knows he’d borrowed it. He moves on to search the floor.

“Gotcha!” he exclaims, triumphantly pulled _A Brief Recapitulation of Wizard Lore_ out from under a t-shirt. Mort would have his head if he knew Steve had this specific book just lying on the floor. The thought of Mort makes him wince, but he stops himself from thinking of how hard Mort went down in the battle. Nope. Not going there. He sits cross-legged on the floor and flips through the book.

A lot of the book is history. Cool. Great. Steve skips that. Come on, come on, stasis spell, stasis – there!

“Now where’s your undo button,” he mumbles, tracing his finger along the words on the page. “Aha!”

He’s relieved there even is an undo spell, but he has no idea how he’s going to cast it on _everyone_ in town. One by one will take an impossible amount of time. All at once sounds – difficult. He bets it will take a lot of power, power he’s not sure he has. Can using too much magic kill him?

“Doesn’t matter,” he tells himself. “We’re all gonna die anyway.”

He skins the page. Not suggested for beginners. Well, tough luck. Maybe he’ll do better if he goes to where Merlin originally cast the spell – it’s light enough out now that he should be safe from the trolls. Okay. That’s a plan.

He tucks the book into a drawstring bag and swings it over his shoulder. He grabs Excalibur, watching it glint in the sunlight spilling in from the window.

“You and me are going to kick some butt,” he tells it. Then he leans his head back and sighs. “And I’m talking to a sword now. Great.”

A glance at the clock on the microwave on his way out tells him he does have a good bit of time before sunset. That’s good. It means he doesn’t have to run to the canal. He speed-walks anyway. The trolls have vanished, back into Trollmarket presumably. Steve is alone.

He skims the words to the spell until he’s sure he’s got them memorised, then closes his eyes and focuses. The world lights up around him but the ground under the bridge glows brightest. He'll deal with the implications of _that_ later. He makes his way to the centre.

“Here's hoping,” he says, placing his hands to the ground. Energy floods him like an electric shock. He speaks the words and hopes he’s pronouncing them right. “_Rhyddhewch y sillafu.”_

The magic responds to his words but he can tell it’s not enough. He repeats the incarnation, once, twice, three times, until he’s not sure what he’s saying anymore, until his voice is hoarse and his arms are trembling and finally – finally they give out. He hits the ground, weak, panting, but traffic sounds above him, life going on.

“I did it,” he gasps out in relief. He pushed himself into a sitting position. He actually did it. His body shakes like after a very gruelling workout. The glow of success feels – really nice.

He starts stumbling back to his house, to Mom and Dad. A hand catches him, somewhere downtown, and he spins away and brandished Excalibur threateningly. Logan throws his hands up.

“Just me!” he says. “Dude, you look like crap.”

“And you look like you don’t have a clue what just happened,” says Steve after a moment.

Logan’s face morphs in concern. “Then tell me.”

Steve hesitates, but everyone is going to find out anyway. There’s no way around it.

“Come with me,” he says.

Logan wraps an arm around Steve’s back to support him. “This the weird stuff?”

“Yeah,” says Steve. “So. Uh. You were right.”

Logan stares at him blankly for a moment before his jaw drops. “No way! Wizards?”

“Yep,” says Steve.

“Are you a wizard?”

“Yep.”

“Holy crap. Does Seamus know?”

“Seamus is also a wizard.”

“DUDE!”

“I know, that’s what I was saying!”

Logan glances around unsurely. “Where is Seamus? And Domzalski and Tarron for that matter?”

“On Akiridion-5,” says Steve. “They’re fine. I hope. I mean I think Toby and Seamus were both a little stabbed–“

“_Stabbed!?_”

“But they’ll be fine!” Steve smiles and pretends like he’s sure. Logan shakes his head.

“Dude, how can you be a _little _stabbed!?” he asks.

“Well, okay, I guess they were pretty stabbed.”

“What the heck.”

“There was a battle, uh, last night,” Steve says. He hopes it was only last night. “You and, well, everyone else in Arcadia were frozen. I, uh, fixed it.”

“That’s so cool,” says Logan. “Wizards, man... wow.”

“Yeah, so, I’m going to tell Mom and Dad – uh, Coach – what’s going on,” Steve says. “I think we’re safe until sunset. Unless Merlin comes after me on his own. He’s arrogant enough. Not that I’m much of a threat.”

“You’ve got magic and a dope sword!” Logan exclaims. “I bet you could kick his butt.”

“Glad one of us thinks so,” Steve says.

They’ve reached his house by now. Steve pulls open the door and they walk in. Dad grabs him in a hug as he enters.

“Hey, kiddo,” he says. “How are you holding up?”

Oh. Right. As far as his parents know, Krel is still dead.

“Your face!” Mom cries in distress.

“A lot has happened,” he says. “So we know who our bad guy is – it’s Merlin. And he attacked and froze the whole town and we fought and super lost, but the others escaped to Akiridion-5. I, uh, got captured, but I escaped and unfroze everybody. Also, Krel's not dead.”

Dad’s eyes fill with tears. “He’s okay?”

“Okay is relative,” admits Steve. “But he’s alive.”

“Wait, wait, was there a _question _about that?” says Logan.

“Uh, yeah, we were completely sure Krel was – gone – until he showed up like yesterday,” Steve says. “It was – it was pretty real. To us. We had a funeral.”

“Man,” mutters Logan. “But he’s alright?”

“Relatively,” says Steve. He’s not sure how much he’d use “okay” and “alright” to describe the state Krel had come back in – extensively burned and clearly hiding some sort of emotional trauma – but at least Krel is alive. That’s what matters. He shakes his head. “We need to get you guys and all the other normal people out of here. Arcadia is about to become the front line of another massive battle.”

“No way!” Logan exclaims.

“You’re not getting rid of us that easily,” says Dad. “You kids need all the help you can get. I’m gonna call Karl and Lenora.”

“Dad–”

“And the radio!” Dad exclaims. He puts a hand on Steve’s armoured shoulder. “But you’re going to have to explain, son.”

Steve glances at Logan, loyally determined, at Mom, smiling grimly, and back to Dad.

“Alright,” he says. “Tell people to meet us where we had Battle of the Bands. And tell them to bring weapons.”

More people than he honestly expects show up to his impromptu rally. He recognises most of his classmates in the crowd, confused and worried but used to the weird stuff by now. Steve almost doesn’t want to tell them they’ve got yet another apocalypse coming. Logan sends him a thumbs up from the front row.

“Uh, hey, guys,” Steve says, which sounds super lame. He coughs awkwardly. “Thanks for coming. Um, you’re probably wondering why I gathered you all here.”

He takes a deep breath and hopes he’s not making a mistake. There are rules about this, he knows there are. Mundanes aren’t supposed to know about magic. But Arcadia already knows about trolls and extra-terrestrials, and they’ve kept that secret. They’ll keep this one, too.

“So I know you remember the trolls and the Akiridions,” he says. There are murmurs and nods from the crowd. “Well, there’s more. A whole world that you guys don’t know about. Wizards. And I’m one of them.”

A hush falls over the crowd, before – slowly and timidly – Shannon raises her hand.

“Yeah,” she says. “Uh, me too.”

Like a switch had been flipped, dozens of hands shoot up in the crowd. A couple of Steve’s classmates besides Shannon. Adults he’s seen around town. Steve’s almost amazed by the number of secret wizards living in his town.

“Great,” he says, the pleased surprise slipping into his voice. “So, any questions about that, go to your nearest wizard or wizard associate. Familiar. You know what, moving on.”

This gets a couple of laughs, which makes Steve feel even worse for the news he’s about to drop on them.

“So, uh, bad news, we’ve got another apocalypse on our hands,” Steve says. The crowd erupts into chatter, and Steve winces. Dad rolls his eyes and pulls out his whistle – seriously, Dad? – and blows it hard.

“SHUT UP AND LISTEN!” he yells. The crowd falls silent.

“Uh, thanks, Dad,” says Steve. Dad gives him two delighted thumbs-up. “So, about a week after Morando attacked, me and some of my friends started getting attacked by these Knights sent by a crazy evil wizard called Merlin. Turns out he’s trying to use something called a formstone to become super powerful and rule the world, except if he uses the formstone it’s going to _destroy_ the world. So, that’s a problem. He’s got a bunch of trolls brainwashed into being his army, including Jim – Lake. Jim Lake, Jr. Most of you know him.”

The crowd erupts again. Steve catches bits and pieces – Darci complaining about coming back from vacation to _this_, Señor Uhl cursing in Spanish, a little troll – Not-Enrique, he thinks – shouting angrily that he knew Merlin was bad news. Coach whistles again to get the crowd under control. Steve tries to make himself look more confident than he feels.

“There’s a big fight coming, and it’s not going to be pretty,” he warns. “If you want to leave, you should get out now. But if you want to stay and fight, we have to work together and be careful. We can do this if we believe in ourselves, which sounds super cheesy but Jim’s been kind of right every time he’s said it so it must mean something. So we can do this.”

Dad and Mom start clapping first, followed by Logan. Steve appreciates them. It’s much more of a shock when the rest of the crowd joins in, shouting encouragements to each other and proving that even if Steve wants everyone to leave, everyone is staying.

“At nightfall, we have to be ready!” Steve calls.

“Nightfall!” the crowd echoes.

Huh. He did a pretty good job, after all.

As if to make things even more hyped, a glowing wormhole opens behind him. Relief floods him as his friends all step out, along with a ton of trolls that must not be from Trollmarket and a bunch of Akiridion soldiers. The trolls are all outfitted with what looks to be some sort of Akiridion tech shield that Steve assumes is protecting them from the sun. Krel catches sight of him first; his face lights up and he launches forward to hug Steve, wrapping all four armoured arms around him and laughing elatedly.

“You’re alive!” he cries. “Thank Seklos! We thought – we thought–”

“I’m alive,” Steve says.

Toby and Seamus join the hug; Steve is relieved they both seem okay, at least okay enough that they’re allowed to be in armour and here to fight. They release him and Seamus hits him hard on the upper arm.

“We said no sacrifices, buttsnack,” he snaps.

“Yeah, yeah, I got it,” says Steve.

Seamus looks like he’s going to say something else, but Krel tugs on his arm and all three of them move out of the way. Then – before Steve has time to wonder why his friends are acting weird – Aja has tackled him and pressed her lips to his, upper hands grasping his face desperately and lower arms wrapped around his torso. Steve pushes away his surprise and lets his hands rest on her back.

“We thought Merlin killed you,” she says after pulling away. She rests her forehead on his. “The last thing I told you was to leave.”

“It’s okay,” he says. “Does this mean you’re less mad at me?”

“It wasn’t your fault,” says Aja. She looks away. “I shouldn’t have blamed you.”

“I blamed me too,” Steve says. He still does, even though he knows Krel doesn’t and never would. “It’s okay.”

“I’m sorry,” she murmurs.

“I’m sorry, too,” he says.

“Can we be done with the face-smushing already?” Krel asks impatiently. Aja giggles. Steve laughs. Leave it to Krel to try to get them back on track. “We’ve got one more ally I think you’ll want to meet.”

Mort scowls and grumbles something that sounds like, “This is a bad idea.” That doesn’t make Steve feel good about it. Krel places a small device on the ground and turns it on. A deep black portal appears above it, and moments later, a woman in golden armour steps out and flexes her hands, a smirk twisting her lips upwards. Steve doesn’t need an introduction to know who she is.

“Now,” says Morgana, “we’re ready for a fight.”


	25. Changing the Course of History

They spend the rest of the afternoon getting ready. Ikram and Nimue give fighting crash courses to anyone who wants one, and a lot of the Akiridions pick up on that and join in helping the humans learn. Vex yells a lot. It’s kind of funny to see how intimidating him to the poor Arcadians, especially when Señor Uhl looks scared. Mort gathers all the wizards together to teach them a spell for breaking the mind-control. He also takes a moment to scold and praise Steve for breaking the stasis spell. He seems simultaneously thankful for and frustrated at Steve’s dumb luck. Toby has to agree.

He’s thrilled Steve is alive. He was honestly convinced that the second they left Steve on Earth with Merlin, that was it. Krel hovers close to him, much like they’ve been doing to Krel. Toby’s not sure how many times he can handle thinking a friend is dead and then having them come back. This summer has really been the worst kind of rollercoaster.

They set up teams for the fight. Divide and conquer. It’s the only way they’re going to stand a chance. Most of the Akiridions, trolls, and normal humans are just fighters. Some normal humans are evacuating or hiding indoors, and several fighters have been assigned to specifically make sure none of the non-fighters get hurt. Every wizard who isn’t, well, Seamus, is on de-brainwashing for obvious reasons. Seamus is on the formstone protection team, which is one of the smaller teams and only consists of him, Krel, Ikram, Zadra, Eli, Stuart, Señor Uhl of all people, and a small chunk of what Zadra calls the Taylon. Toby is on Team Jim, which is him, Claire, Blinky, Aaarrrgghh!!!, Not-Enrique, Nomura, Dr. L, Stickler, and unfortunately Morgana. Toby hopes they’ll be able to fix Jim. He wants his best friend back.

Their group migrates to the side after planning to wait. Dr. L uses a damp paper towel from inside a nearby shop to clean up the cut on Steve’s face. There’s a woman there Toby doesn’t know, but by the glowing silver focusers she must be a wizard. The rest of them just kind of hover around, anxiously waiting for sundown.

Steve and Seamus’s friend Logan joins them and crosses his arms. “So. Wizards.”

“Yeah, okay, you were right,” says Seamus. “If it helps, at that point I didn’t know the weird stuff was wizard-related.”

“It should have been fairly obvious,” Krel points out. “You were literally researching the Knights for Mort. You’re smart. You didn’t – what’s the saying? Connect the dots?”

“You got it right that time,” Toby says, impressed.

“Listen, in retrospect it’s very obvious, if only because you guys are always involved in this kind of stuff,” says Seamus.

“This summer has been wild,” says Logan. He points accusingly at Krel. “And apparently you, like, died?”

“Something like that,” says Krel.

Logan laughs in disbelief. “Wild, man.”

Steve finally joins them. “Dude, I’m looking forward to _school_ at this point.”

“I’m guessing this is why school was postponed?” Mary asks. Toby doesn’t know where she and Darci came from, but they and Shannon and her girlfriend have joined them as well. Darci presses a kiss to his cheek.

“You didn’t tell me,” she says. There’s a faint tone of accusation in her voice.

“I wanted you to have fun at camp, not worry about me,” he says. “I told you enough.”

“You said there were crazy knights chasing you and you had it handled.”

“We did. For a bit.”

“You did _not_ have it handled,” Aja scoffs.

“We did!” Toby defends.

“It went a lot better in the beginning,” Douxie adds. “It wasn’t really till the Red Knight showed up that things got really spotty.”

“I got the crap beaten out of me by the Black Knight!” Steve protests.

“Point,” says Douxie. A teen Toby doesn’t know shoulders his way out of the crowd to join them, linking hands with Douxie. Mary’s face falls minutely when the guy leans over to kiss the wizard.

“Seriously, this is what I come home to?” he says.

“I didn’t know you were back,” Douxie says in surprise.

Krel grins – that one specific grin that means he’s about to be the epitome of annoying little brother.

“Douxie has a boyfriend,” he teases in a sing-song voice. “Is this _Alex_?”

Okay. No fair. When did Douxie tell _Krel_ about this – and not Toby? He’ll find a way to get back at him after this. Actually, by Douxie’s scarlet face, it was probably Mort who told Krel at some point, which makes much more sense.

Aja rolls her eyes at her brother. “Glad I’m not the only one dealing with you now.”

“Hey, was school cancelled at Arcadia Oaks Academy too?” asks Darci.

Alex – apparently – nods. “Yep. It’ll be right back to it after this, though. Hi, by the way. I don’t know a lot of you, although I think I can pick out the ones I’ve heard of. I’m Alex. I suspect the alien – sorry, Akridion with the tall hair is Krel, the blond that looks like Mort is Steve, and the redhead is Toby?”

“That’s us,” says Toby.

Seamus raises an offended hand. “You left me out?”

“And you must be Seamus,” says Alex.

Krel pats his shoulder. “You’re just less memorable. It’s okay.”

“Oh, shut up,” grumbles Seamus.

Morgana, who hasn’t yet been interacting with anyone, walks over and pats Douxie on the head. Douxie turns sheet white, which would be more amusing if Toby, also, was really uncomfortable about Morgana being there. She does the same to Steve.

“Arthur’s heir, yes?” she says. “You look like him.”

“Um,” says Steve, “thanks?”

“You were raised by Mordred?” Morgana asks Douxie. “All by himself?”

“Uh, yes,” says Douxie. He pauses, then tacks on politely, “Ma’am.”

By the way, tensions are super high between Mort and his aunt. Like, tensions are high anyway, because the sun is going to set soon and then it’ll be time to fight, but _man_, tensions are high between Mort and Morgana and have been since even before they took her out of the shadow realm. Mort catches sight of her with the group of them and stalks over with a scowl.

“If you hurt these kids–” he starts.

“Oh, relax, Mordred,” says Morgana.

“I go by Mort now.”

Morgana shakes her head. “Mordred is a fine name.”

“Oh, for the love of–” Mort closes his eyes and lets out a frustrated breath. “What are you doing, Aunt Morgana?”

“Meeting my nephews. Such polite young men,” she says. Polite has never been a word used to describe Steve. Toby doesn’t know where she got _polite_ from. “And you’re sure you were raised by my nephew? Hmph. Mordred, you were never this polite. I don’t know where Douxie got it.”

“You don’t live with him,” Mort says flatly. “And stop doting on _my_ nephew! He doesn’t want anything to do with you.”

“Of course he does,” says Morgana. She pats Douxie’s cheek. Douxie winces. “Auntie Morgana is going to teach you all the best ways to kill someone.”

“Oh,” says Douxie weakly. “Great.”

Alex hides his laughter. Aja gives Morgana an approving once-over. Now that’s a team-up Toby does _not_ want to see.

“This is the woman who almost destroyed the world a few months ago?” Krel mutters to Toby. Toby shrugs. He’s pretty sure this is a level of petty family spite that only immortals can accomplish.

Morgana tilts Steve’s head around. Steve looks panicked, eyes darting to Toby, Krel, and Seamus to beg for help they can’t really give. If Steve’s great-great-great – okay, lots of great – aunt wants to dote on him for no reason, they can’t stop her. Morgana hums. “You really do have Arthur’s nose. I’m surprised it’s lasted this long. The hair, too, that’s Arthur’s.”

“If I remember ninth-grade biology, that’s not how genetics work,” says Steve.

“Genetics, what is that?” says Morgana absently.

“Uh,” Steve manages.

Morgana turns her attention on Krel. “You’re the boy that released me?”

“Uh, with Mort and Claire’s help,” says Krel.

“Krel really did most of the work,” says Claire.

“Intelligent boy,” she says. She tilts her head. “And powerful, for one so young. You are a wizard as well? Your planet’s equivalent?”

“You ask a lot more questions than I thought you would,” Toby says.

“I’m not a wizard,” says Krel, crinkling his nose like he doesn’t like the idea in the slightest. “I like my science, thank you.”

“Right,” says Seamus. “How many laws of physics did you break to get Morgana here?”

Krel opens his mouth to respond, then closes it and scowls. “I’m inventing new science.”

“That’s not how science works,” says Steve.

“That’s totally how science works,” says Seamus. “We find new rules of science all the time. Yo, Krel, here’s the plan. We work together and write a research paper and get a couple of scientific laws names after us.”

Krel’s eyes light up. “That would be klebtastic.”

“Seklos and Gaylen, there are _two_ of them,” mutters Aja.

Toby laughs. It’s good to laugh, even a little, before everything finally hits the fan. He really wouldn’t put it past Krel and Seamus to do that, either, which is the most amusing part. Douxie moves to switch places with his boyfriend to get away from Morgana, but when he takes a step her attention lands on him again and she grabs his face. It’s a very aunt-like gesture. Seriously, is this really the same woman who almost caused the first apocalypse of the summer?

“Stop harassing the boys,” says Mort.

“See? Far less polite,” says Morgana.

Mort pinches the bridge of his nose. “Can we please focus? Aunt, _please_ release the boys and let us get back to the matter at hand.”

“Mordred, are you feeding him enough?” she asks, tilting a very uncomfortable Douxie’s head. Yeah, okay. This is actually hilarious.

“Please don’t start this,” says Mort.

“This armour is nice,” she says. “Nicer than I would have expected from you. You never quite had your father’s flair for this sort of thing.”

Steve’s eyes widen. “Right! Mort! I – uh – I think this belongs to you.”

He holds out the sword he’s had since they arrived. Mort traces a hand over the metal, eyes wide and shocked silent. He rests a hand on it and meets Steve’s eyes, frowning.

“My father’s blade,” he says softly. “Where did you find this?”

“Merlin had it,” Steve says, before wincing like he hates that he had to say it.

Mort closes his eyes. Something like subdued grief – probably centuries-old grief, being dredged up again by King Arthur’s sword. “Of course he did.”

“I thought – your dad would probably want you to have this,” says Steve.

Mort smiles and withdraws his hand. He shakes his head. “I thank you for the sentiment, but if there’s anyone worthy of Father’s blade it’s _you_, Steve. He would have liked you very much. I can think of no more worthy successor of his legacy.”

Steve visibly swallows and draws the sword closer to himself. His eyes shine. Toby pretends not to notice.

“Thanks, Mort,” he says.

Mort smiles and inclines his head, before returning to seriousness to survey the crowd. “We should start getting to positions. We want to be ready when the sun sets. Krel–”

“Hide until the canal is clear,” says Krel. “I know.”

“We’ve got this, Mort,” says Seamus.

Aja traces Krel’s cheek, fingers hovering above the burns without touching them. “I don’t like splitting up.”

“You’re needed with the fighters,” says Krel. “Besides, I have Zadra and Ikram. And Seamus and Eli, I guess.”

“Hey,” Eli and Seamus both protest. Krel grins at them.

Aja hugs him. “Be careful, little brother. I’m not losing you again.”

Krel hugs her back, but Toby doesn’t miss how he doesn’t reassure her. He’s sure Aja doesn’t either, by the way her grip tightens before she lets go.

“It’s go time,” says Toby.

“Go time,” Aaarrrgghh!!! echoes. He offers Toby a fist bump. Blinky puts a hand on Claire’s shoulder and she nods, grim. Their plan relies on Jim finding them, not them finding Jim, but Toby isn’t sure that will work. He hopes it will.

The sky hits the purple of dusk, darkness that trolls are starting to be able to move around in. Blinky impatiently taps the activator for the Akiridion sun-shield Krel had made the rolls. Mort glances at the incoming darkness and nods.

“Let’s go,” he says.

Team Jim sets up in the cul-de-sac where Toby and Jim both live. It’s a lovely clear night. With lots of lights off in town, Toby can make out a bunch of stars overhead. He paces anxiously. Morgana hovers calmly behind him and the others. Toby doesn’t like this. He doesn’t like trusting her, even if she promised before they released her that she would help against Merlin.

“You’re not going to go all Eternal Night on us after this, are you?” he checks.

Morgana tilts her head. “After we win? I don’t believe so.”

“Phew,” mutters Toby.

Claire scowls. “Forgive me if I don’t trust her right away. She tried to kill us.”

“That’s kind of par for the course for me nowadays,” says Toby. “At least she only tried to kill us _once_.”

Claire crosses her arms. “I don’t trust her.”

“Relax, sis,” says Not-Enrique. “She tries anything, she’s out-numbered.”

“Yeah, that went so well last time,” grumbles Claire.

Morgana sets herself back on the ground and walks to Toby. She waves a hand and summons what looks to be an amulet like Jim’s, this time golden in colour. She hands it to Toby.

“I believe Merlin’s control of your Trollhunter is reliant on his armour,” she says. “Attach this to the corrupt amulet. It should free him. If this doesn’t work, and the spell to release standard mind-control fails as well… then there is nothing else I can do.”

“What do you suppose we do then?” demands Blinky.

Morgana meets his eyes evenly. “Then we have no choice but to eliminate the threat. He must die.”

“No way!” Toby exclaims.

Blinky snarls. “We will not allow you to kill Master Jim, you – you witch!”

“Sorceress, if you will,” says Morgana. “And I believe you’ll find that you cannot stop me.”

“We shouldn’t have taken you out of the Shadow Realm,” mutters Claire.

Morgana sighs. “I know what it is to be betrayed by that man. He was my teacher, once upon a time. Mordred’s, as well. We’ve both been hurt by him, and now you’ve felt his treacherous sting as well. Whether you trust me or not, trust that I have as many reasons as you to fight Merlin and save your Trollhunter.”

Well. That explains some of Mort’s hatred of Merlin, then. Toby almost doesn’t want to know what the buttsnack of a wizard had done to Mort, that made even his estranged aunt’s mouth curl into a frown and brow lower into sharp anger. Another reason to hate Merlin himself, Toby supposes for now.

It’s not long after nightfall when Jim arrives. Part of Toby is relieved he’s here, and – better yet – he’s here alone. It’s bold and kind of stupid of Merlin to not protect one of his most valuable assets. Claire summons a glowing purple dagger that flickers unsteadily. Morgana sighs.

“Convince yourself that you have a real weapon, and you will,” she says. “Don’t try any more magic while using magic weapons. Focus.”

Claire presses her lips together and nods. Despite her distrust of Morgana, the dagger seems to stabilise.

“Mr. Domzalski, you focus on the amulet,” says Strickler. “The rest of us will keep Jim busy to give you the chance.”

Toby nods. “Got it.”

Jim attacks. Claire dives out of the way to avoid being skewered by Daylight. Toby tries not to flinch too badly when Morgana's magic whips wrap around Jim’s body. He struggles angrily, before finally ripping himself free and attacking again. Toby’s heart hurts to see his friend so animalistic and threatening.

Dr. L runs at him with a broom, eyes hard. Jim bats her away like a fly. Strickler leaps into the air to dive-bomb Jim and Nomura runs at him from the ground. The tag-team attack is no use. Jim was a great fighter before and somehow he’s even better now, probably because Merlin’s eliminated his instinct to not kill people. Strickler slams into Toby’s roof. Nomura skids backwards, snarl still present.

“Jim!” Claire calls. “Please, I know you’re still in there!”

“It’s no use,” says Morgana. “Merlin is too strong. His spell will not be defeated so easily as with the power of _friendship_. The amulet is the only chance.”

Toby tightens his grip on the amulet and nods to Claire. She blinks back tears and nods back. Nomura charges again with a roar. She meets Daylight with her daggers and sparks fly.

“My apologies for this, Master Jim!” Blinky says, before whacking Jim with a very large book. It doesn’t do anything but make him angrier. Blinky yelps and jumps away as Jim lashes out with Daylight.

“Good try,” rumbles Aaarrrgghh!!!.

“Not quite good enough,” says Blinky morosely.

Strickler flies back into the battle, Jim jumps out of the way and manages to drag his sword across Strickler’s side. The changeling lets out an animalistic cry and growls at Jim, one hand going to the new wound. Barbara runs forward and tries to parry an attack with Daylight; the broom shatters.

Not-Enrique leaps onto Jim’s head. Jim hisses and tries to pry him off, stumbling backwards. Morgana throws out a spell to restrain Jim again and Aaarrrgghh!!! lunges forward and wraps his arms around his snarling form. It’s definitely working better than last time.

“Now, Tobias!” roars Blinky.

“Hurry up, kid!” a struggling Not-Enrique bites out.

Toby surges forward and slams Morgana's amulet into the one on Jim’s chest. Jim shrieks. Aaarrrgghh!!! stumbles away from him as a bright light surrounds him and finally, the dark armour vanishes. Jim collapses, clad in tattered, non-small human clothes. Toby, Claire, and Dr. Lake all run to him.

“Jim?” says Dr. Lake. “Jim, sweetie, wake up.”

Jim groans and groggily opens his eyes. “Mom...?”

“Oh, Jim!” Dr. Lake wraps her arm around Jim. He hugs her back, eyes closed.

“Good to have you back with us, Young Atlas,” says Strickler.

“What… happened?” Jim asks, pulling away from his mom’s hug. He glances between all of them, eyes lingering worriedly on the still-healing cut on Toby’s face and the jagged slice of broken metal on his armour. Toby doesn’t want to tell him; he brings up a hand to cover the damaged armour. At least _that_ wasn’t mind-controlled Jim’s doing.

“You were controlled by Merlin,” says Claire softly.

“I was – oh, no.” Jim jerks away and stands, stumbling backwards. “No, no, no – what did I do? Please tell me I didn’t hurt anyone.”

Several pairs of eyes dart to Toby. He winces when Jim’s eyes widen and he shakes his head in horror. His mouth moves to form words, but no sound comes out. Toby takes a step towards him.

“I’m okay, Jimbo,” he says. He tries to smile at him. “Tis but a flesh wound!”

“I _hurt_ you.” Jim’s voice breaks. Clearly the joke didn’t work. Toby didn’t think it would. Jim takes another step backwards. “I hurt my best friend, I – I–”

“You were under Merlin’s control,” Toby insists. Before Jim can move any further backwards, Toby walks over and hugs him. Jim hesitates, then returns the hug. Toby’s so, so glad to have his best friend back again, for good, this time. If they can just make it through this fight, everything will be okay again. Jim and the trolls can stay in Arcadia. They’ll figure out the heartstone thing. It’s going to be okay.

“I’m so sorry, Tobes,” Jim whispers.

“It’s not your fault,” Toby says. “You’re okay now. That’s what matters.”

They walk closer to the others. Jim hugs Claire, then hugs Blinky and Aaarrrgghh!!! as well. Morgana grabs his face and starts to tilt it from side to side, but Jim yelps and jumps away from her. He motions like he wants to summon Daylight, but without the armour he’s left weaponless. He clenches his fists and holds them as if ready to punch.

“What is _she_ doing here!?” he exclaims.

Toby runs between them. “Woah, woah, Jimbo, calm down. She’s on our side. For now. She helped us free you.”

“She… helped me?” Jim repeats slowly, lowering his hands and furrowing his brow. “I don’t understand.”

“You poor thing,” says Morgana, which doesn’t sound anything like Morgana if you ask Toby. She approaches Jim again and runs a hand over one of his horns. “Merlin’s magic is ruthless.”

Jim looks uncomfortable. Claire takes a protective step forward, but Strickler gently grabs her shoulder and shakes his head. Morgana hasn’t betrayed them yet. Toby’s starting to think that maybe she’s not going to, after all.

“I cannot undo Merlin’s magic,” says Morgana, “but I can do this.”

She rests her hands on Jim’s shoulders, and her golden magic envelopes him. In person, now that he’s seeing it again, Morgana’s gold is lighter than Steve’s. It makes Toby feel a bit better, actually. He shields his eyes from the bright light until it finally fades. Jim looks the exact same – whatever Morgana did doesn’t seem to have done anything, but at least Jim looks unharmed, if a bit disoriented. He blinks rapidly.

“What…?” Jim says.

“Go on,” says Morgana. She motions with her green hand, the one Toby is pretty sure isn’t actually real. “Change.”

Jim’s brow furrows. “Change?”

Strickler’s eyes widen. “Of course. Listen to her, Jim. _Change_.”

Jim frowns, but he closes his eyes as if focusing. Change. Wait. Does that mean…?

Jim’s face twists deeper into concentration. A few moments and another bright light later, and suddenly, Jim stumbles to his hands and knees in front of them. His very human hands and knees.

“Jim?” Dr. Lake says hesitantly.

Jim blinks rapidly and sits back on his calves. He holds his trembling hands out in front of him, eyes wide.

“I’m human again,” he mumbles in awe.

“Not quite,” says Morgana.

“You made him a changeling,” Claire realises. “You – made it so he can live in _both_ worlds.”

Jim’s eyes shine. He brings his hands to his chest and looks up at her. “Thank you.”

“Don’t thank me yet,” warns Morgana. “First, you must survive this fight.”

Toby offers Jim a hand to help him to his feet. Jim wobbles for a few seconds, then laughs delightedly. He pulls Toby and Claire both into a quick hug, then stretches his once-again human limbs and grins.

“Alright,” he says. “Now where my amulet?”

“Uh, bad news,” says Toby. “Merlin was using it to control you.”

Jim groans. “Oh. Great. That’s great, now what?”

Morgana picks up the golden amulet, discarded on the ground, and offers it to Jim. “This may not quite be Merlin’s armour, but I assure you it will live up to your standards. Go on. There is no incantation. Just strength of will.”

Jim takes it gingerly, then holds it up to the sky. “For the doom of Merlin!”

“Clever,” says Toby.

The armour flies onto him. It looks almost exactly like the Trollhunter armour if you ask Toby, but he can see faint hints of Morgana’s gold in the outline. Jim stretches to test how it feels. He looks as nimble as Toby remembers. Man, it’s good to see Jim human again. Toby loves his friend no matter what species he is, but something about Jim being stuck as a troll because of Merlin’s manipulations always left Toby super uneasy. It should have been one of the first signs. They shouldn’t have trusted Merlin at all.

“Maybe you aren’t so bad after all,” Toby says to Morgana.

She scoffs. “I just couldn’t stand the sight of something so _pitiful_. And any chance to spite the old goat.”

Jim turns to the rest of them and draws himself to full height; as he does so, he changes back to troll form. Probably for the best, since they’re going to be fighting. His troll form is a little less vulnerable. Even so, his determination is good to see again, especially after worrying they wouldn’t be able to get him back.

“So what’s going on?” he asks. “What’s the plan?”

“End of the world, man,” says Toby.

“We’ve split up,” says Strickler. “I suggest most of us join the fighters while Claire and Morgana continue removing mind-control spells.”

“How long was I…?”

“A day,” says Claire. “Maybe two. We were on Akiridion-5 for most of it. You’d have to ask Steve.”

Jim runs a hand through his hair. “Great. That’s – great. Okay. Here’s the plan. I think we need to split up to cover more town. Tobes, Claire, you’re with me.”

“Oh, yeah!” Toby exclaims. “Team Trollhunters back together!”

“Aaarrrgghh!!! and I will join the fighters,” says Blinky. He gleefully whips out four dwarkstones. Aaarrrgghh!!! carefully lowers his hands.

“As will we,” says Dr. L.

“Mom,” starts Jim.

“Don’t even try it, mister,” she says. Her face softens. “Don’t worry. I’ll be fine.”

“I’ll keep an eye on Witchy here to make sure she doesn’t go nuts on us,” says Not-Enrique, leaping onto Morgana’s armoured shoulder. She scowls at him. “Eh, Nomura? With us?”

“If I don’t go with you, you’ll be the cause of the next apocalypse,” says Nomura dryly.

“We need to get to Krel,” says Toby. “They’re going to need all the back-up they can get.”

“Do we know where Krel is?” asks Jim.

“Take a random guess,” says Claire dryly.

Comprehension dawns on Jim’s face, followed quickly by resignation. “Canal?”

“Canal,” Claire and Toby confirm.

“Where it all started,” mutters Jim. He holds out a hand and a sword appears – Daylight. Somehow it’s still Daylight. Despite the sword’s origins, Toby’s glad they don’t have to say goodbye to it yet. Jim swings it and nods. “Let’s go.”

They’re so focused on getting through the fight to Krel, Claire de-brainwashing on the way, that Toby runs right into Steve. The wizard yelps and stumbles, but Toby shoots out a hand to stabilise him.

“Oh, it’s just you,” says Steve.

“Great news,” says Toby. “Jim’s back.”

“Hey!” Steve exclaims delightedly. “That _is_ great news. Now all we gotta do is stop Merlin from destroying the world.”

“Steve!” Aja calls. She grunts at the effort of holding back a troll with her serrator in whip form. Huh. Toby didn’t know it could do that. “Now would be a great time to help me!”

“Sorry, sorry!” exclaims Steve.

“Alright, boys,” says Claire. “Let’s de-brainwash some trolls.”

In a way, it feels almost like the earlier days of Trollhunting, before things got too complicated, before aliens and wizards and all of that. It also feels like the Eternal Night, which is a much less fun comparison, but also more accurate. Most of the light comes from flickering streetlamps and flashes of magic and the bright half-moon and stars in the sky.

“We need to get to Krel!” Toby calls to Steve and Aja.

“You don’t have to tell me twice!” Aja shouts back.

Toby hates fighting the trolls. He recognises some of them as they run, like Bagdwella, locked in mindless, furious combat with Shannon and a girl Toby doesn’t know, both wizards apparently (seriously? How many of his classmates are wizards?). He also sees some trolls fighting on their side, already freed from Merlin’s control.

Steve seems surprisingly in his element de-brainwashing the trolls, fiercely determined as he and Aja fight together like some sort of choreographed dance. Toby would have never described his jock friend as graceful before, but the sword in his hand looks as natural as if it were a part of him. Toby’s impressed. He likes to imagine he, Jim, and Claire look just as awesome. Jim does, at least, but Claire seems to be struggling with her magic and Toby can’t seriously picture himself looking very cool.

“Tobes, on your right!” Jim yells.

Toby spins around and slams his hammer into the side of the attacking troll’s head. While he stands dazed, Claire runs forward with a battle-cry to perform the de-brainwashing spell. The troll stumbles and puts a hand to his head.

“What the…?” he says. “Trollhunter?”

“Long story short, Merlin is evil and brainwashed you,” says Jim. “We gotta go, Klegmel. Stay safe.”

It must be even worse for Jim and Claire, then. Toby knows a lot of these trolls, but Jim and Claire have been travelling with them for weeks. These are their friends in ways Toby thinks they won’t ever be his. A part of that hurts, that Jim now has all these experiences that Toby doesn’t share, but Toby does too. Jim will always be his best friend, but he didn’t live through the Knights stalking them or late nights training with Ikram and Nimue or sleepovers both for safety and for camaraderie. Things are different now. _They’re_ different now. He doesn’t know how to feel about that.

Toby’s phone rings. Toby glances briefly at the caller ID – Eli – and picks up.

“Toby!” Eli exclaims. “We could really use some back-up here!”

“We’re on our way, hold tight,” says Toby, even as worry curls in his stomach.

“Well, hurry!” Eli lets out a yelp. Toby can hear the sounds of battle from the other side. That’s not a good sign. “Merlin’s found us!”

“Wait, wait, Merlin found you already!?”

Eli shrieks and the line goes dead. Toby turns to Steve with wide eyes. He’s sure his expression mirrors his friend’s in horror. If Merlin’s already there, if Merlin know where the formstone is, if Merlin gets Krel–

“Time’s up,” Toby says. “We’ve got to get to the formstone _now_.”


	26. The Fate of the World: Part One

Krel and his team – that’s weird to think, _his_ team, but that’s what it is – hide around the canal watching Merlin and his trolls exit Trollmarket. Part of Krel wants to go ahead and start fighting, but that isn’t why they’re here. Beside him, Seamus gives him a reassuring smile. Eli, on his other side, clutches his arm with wide eyes. Krel’s glad to have his friends there with him.

It’s immediately obvious that Merlin doesn’t know – or is pretending not to know – where the formstone is, because he leaves with the trolls and only four or five trolls remain at the entrance to Trollmarket. Krel makes eye contact with Zadra and nods. She, Ikram, and several of the Taylon roar out of the bushes they’re hiding in to subdue the trolls. Seamus, their only wizard, skids into the canal to perform the de-brainwashing spell. The rest of them follow into the canal at a calmer pace. They aren’t in a hurry, now that the trolls are defeated and Merlin isn’t here.

“That was far too easy,” says Zadra with a frown.

“Gift horse, mouth,” says Seamus.

“What?” says Krel.

“Dude, one day we are going to sit down and I’m going explain a ton of idioms to you,” says Seamus.

Krel kneels on top of the formstone and places his hands on the ground. As expected, it’s still there, buzzing hotly under the concrete. Seamus puts a hand on his shoulder as he sits up.

“What if Merlin just – comes at us with everything?” Krel says quietly, brow furrowed. “We won’t stand a chance.”

“If he knew the formstone was here, he’d be here already,” says Seamus. He offers Krel a hand to help him stand. “We’re going to be okay. You’ve got your friends to back you up. You’re not alone.”

“I’m glad I have you,” he says. Seamus smiles and holds out his fist for a fist-bump. Krel grins and returns it.

“Alright!” exclaims Eli, linking arms with each of them. “Friendship!”

Krel and Seamus both laugh. Zadra paces in front of them, wordlessly directing Taylon soldiers to different areas of the canal. She glances at the three of them. “Stay on guard. Merlin could be here any moment.”

“Okay, but seriously, we won’t stand a chance alone if Merlin shows up,” Krel says.

Seamus shrugs. “So we call for back-up. Pepperjack! Think you can do that?”

“You got it!” Eli chirps.

Krel glances up at the clear sky. Unfamiliar constellations hover above them. Seamus follows his gaze and points upward. “Do you see that one? It looks like a spoon? That’s the Little Dipper. Ursa Minor. And right there, that bright star at the end of the handle is Polaris. The North Star. People used to use it to navigate the seas.”

“Amazing,” Krel breathes. “Did it work?”

“Sure it did,” says Seamus. “I mean, it must have, or else they wouldn’t have used it.”

“You’d be surprised,” says Krel.

“When I was little, it was my favourite star.” Seamus focuses his eyes on the glittering star and smiles softly at it. “Mom said if I was ever lost, I could use the North Star to help guide me home. And a compass spell. I still think I would have gotten myself more lost, but – the sentiment was nice.”

“We didn’t have anything like that on Akiridion-5,” Krel admits.

“Well,” says Seamus, glancing back at Krel. “Now you have this one.”

Krel smiles at him, but despite the warm feeling that always comes with interacting with his friends – friends! Krel still can’t believe he has friends! – he still can’t help but let the smile fall back into a worried frown.

“You know,” says Seamus, “after this, school is gonna be a breeze.”

“A breeze?” says Krel with a grin. “Why would school be a light wind?”

Seamus shoves him. “You know exactly what I mean.”

“Perhaps,” says Krel.

“Man, I’m kinda glad I won’t be going back to school,” says Eli. “I would _not_ be ready.”

“Listen, there’s no life-threatening adventures at school,” says Seamus. “The bar is so low after this summer that that’s literally all I’m asking.”

“That, I can agree with,” says Krel.

“Well, you two can have fun with homework,” says Eli.

Seamus scoffs. “After this summer? I’ll welcome it.”

They stand around waiting for far too long, in Krel’s opinion. He’s suspicious as to why Merlin hasn’t found them yet, why more trolls haven’t found them yet. Zadra gets more and more on edge the longer they wait, even though it can’t have been much more than half an hour. Krel, Seamus, and Eli pass the time playing hand games that Krel has to be quickly taught. He’s good at being able to play Rock, Paper, Scissors with two people at once. It seems to really amuse Seamus and Eli.

They’re about to start another round of Rock, Paper, Scissors, when they’re hit with a sudden blast of energy. All of them go flying. Krel manages to right himself in mid-air and catch Eli. Seamus hits the ground and skids a couple of feet.

“Ow,” he grunts.

“He’s here!” yells Zadra. She helps Ikram to her feet and glares around at the Taylon. “Remember! The king-in-waiting takes full priority! Do not let the wizard anywhere near him!”

Krel deposits Eli on the ground. “Call for back-up! Do you have a weapon?”

“Got a serrator,” he says.

“Do you know how to use it?”

“Define use.”

“It’ll have to do.” Krel pushes Eli away from where Merlin’s trolls are approaching down the canal side. The Red Knight is among them, helmet on, and Krel forces himself to not think about the last time they faced off. That’s a trauma he doesn’t have time to deal with right now. Or ever, preferably. Merlin himself hovers in mid-air, floating down to meet them. His eyes roam over their somewhat pitiful defences. Krel summons a sword and a shield and readies himself.

“I’m giving you the option to surrender now,” says Merlin. He meets Krel’s eyes. “If you do, no one else has to get hurt.”

Krel adjusts his stance and lowers his brow into the most intimidating glare he can.

“Never,” he says.

“Very well,” says Merlin. He raises a hand and lowers it towards them. “Attack!”

The battle is on. Krel quickly finds himself locked in combat with an unfamiliar troll. They should have had more wizards on their team. He can see Seamus working overtime to try to de-brainwash trolls as they fight, but he’s also the only wizard there so he’s not having a ton of luck because he _also_ has to defend himself from attacks.

“Forget it!” he calls to his friend. “Focus on knocking them out!”

“Alright!” Seamus calls back.

Krel manages to knock the troll he’s fighting away, and one of the Taylon brings a blunt weapon down on his head, knocking the troll out. Krel has to dodge quickly to avoid getting skewered and turns to face his new opponent. He freezes.

“No, no, not you,” he says.

Mugg snarls at him, eyes empty of recognition. Krel’s core hurts, but he parries her next attack anyway. Why did it have to be one of the few trolls he actually knows? It’s one thing to fight nameless, brainwashed minions, but another to fight someone who helped him in one of his worst moments.

He ducks to avoid a swipe aimed at his head, then vanishes his weapons to grab Mugg’s leg and knock her over. She shrieks and growls at him, then grabs his arm and slams him into the concrete. He manages to materialise his helmet just in time but still yelps.

“You are way stronger than I thought!” he tells her. He focuses on summoning a hammer or – well, something with blunt force. Stabbing is really, really out. He manages a bat. Good enough.

Mugg lunges. He cringes, swings the bat, and yells, “I’m sorry!”

It makes contact. Mugg is out like a light. Krel sighs in relief and mentally apologises again. He vanishes the bat and takes a moment to look around. To his horror, he sees a few stray Akiridion cores on the ground – members of the Taylon. This isn’t their home, and yet they’ve given their lives for it. Krel sends a silent, devastated thank you to them.

It’s more difficult than Krel expected, fighting the trolls. He’s doing his best not to hurt them too badly, and he knows the others are too. Part of him worries it’s why they’re losing. Because they _are_ losing. They need back-up an hour ago if he’s honest. Eli, across the battlefield from him, is struggling with his serrator. Krel can only assume he’s called for help.

He manages to knock out another troll and gives himself a second to breathe. Just a second, but he doesn’t even have that long. He dodges an attack from a nearby troll right into the rocky punch of another. He’s left winded from the blow.

Then, suddenly, he hears Seamus cry, “KREL! LOOK OUT!”

He starts to look, too late, as hands slam into him and he stumbles and falls to his knees. He turns. Time stops. His breath catches in his throat as the Red Knight’s sword is withdrawn from Seamus’s chest and his friend drops to the ground.

“_NO_!!!” Krel screams. He scrambles on his hands and knees to Seamus’s side. His blue eyes blink slowly and meet Krel’s. A small smile forms on his lips. Krel shakes his head and chokes back a sob. “Seamus – Seamus, hold on. Hold on, I – I’ll fix you. You’re okay.”

Krel places his hands down on the injury and focuses all his energy to it. He begs it to heal. He begs his powers to let him heal his friend. He can feel the energy gathering at the wound but it isn’t fixing it, it should be fixing it. Seamus’s breathing rasps, weak and wet and bloody and Krel’s hands are coated with scarlet blood and _why isn’t this working_? It should be _working_.

“You’re okay,” he forces out. “You’re okay, you’re okay, you’re going to be _okay_.”

“Krel,” Seamus says. He coughs and red stains his lips and chin. One of Seamus’s hands lands on Krel’s. “It’s alright.”

“It’s not,” Krel sobs. “Don’t do this. Seamus, please, _please_, don’t _do _this. Why did you do this?”

“Couldn’t let you die.” Seamus coughs again, longer and wetter this time. Krel gasps in a strangled breath and tries, tries so hard to get his powers to heal his friend. Seamus can't – he can’t – Krel won’t _let him_. Seamus smiles. Why is he smiling? “You’re one of my best friends, Krel. You’re – amazing.”

“Please, Seamus,” Krel pleads. “Just hold on. Don’t leave me.”

Seamus raises his other hand to the side of Krel’s face. Krel leans into it, choking on more sobs and watching his friend’s blood stain the concrete around them.

“You’re going to be okay,” Seamus says. He lets out a shaky breath. His eyes dim. The hand on Krel’s face drops. No. No, no – _no_. He’s – he’s – Krel can’t even think it. He lets out a wail and hunches over, resting his forehead on Seamus’s and letting his tears drip onto his friend’s lifeless face, as if that could bring him back, as if that could make things better. His hands are warm – the blood is still warm – Krel sobs, desperate, trembling, and feeling so, so alone.

He hears metallic footsteps behind him and takes a deep breath. Anger floods him and his powers spark, electric, violent, broken-hearted. He turns to face the Red Knight, lifting off the ground and into the air without even meaning to.

“You killed him.” Formless energy gathers in Krel’s hands. The chill of loss in his core gives way to bright, fiery rage. “_You killed him!_”

The Red Knight takes a step back. It’s the first show of hesitance Krel has ever seen from him.

Krel attacks anyway.

There’s no holding back this time. Krel’s barely aware of anything he’s doing, only of the burning grief and the stabbing fury and the fact that one of his best friends is dead, dead by this man’s hand, dead to save _Krel_.

“MURDERER!” he shrieks. “_MURDERER!_”

Before he knows it, he has the Red Knight defenceless, kneeling, helmet discarded and hands up in surrender. There’s fear in his eyes and blood dripping from his hairline. He’s completely under Krel’s power.

“Please,” blurts the Knight. “Mercy! Mercy!”

Hot, angry tears spill down Krel’s cheeks. He pulls his lips into a snarl.

“No,” he says. He plunges his sword into the Knight’s chest and twists and watches the Knight’s eyes go as dark as Seamus’s. When he pulls the blade out, the Knight collapses to his side. Dead.

Krel lowers to the ground, suddenly exhausted. He walks numbly back to Seamus, still motionless on the ground, surrounded by crimson blood and staring sightlessly at the stars above them, at the North Star meant to guide him home. He kneels and carefully closes his friend’s eyes.

“I’m sorry,” he whispers. “This is my fault. I’m sorry.”

He pulls Seamus into his arms. He needs all four to support his weight, but he manages to carry him away from the battle, to the edge of the canal, and lay him down. He presses his forehead to Seamus’s again, desperate for his friend to just wake up, laugh, admit that this was just a cruel joke. He’s fine. He’s _okay_.

A hand lands on Krel’s shoulder. He turns. Zadra lowers her head respectfully, and Krel stands and wraps his arms around her. She holds him as his body shakes with sobs and he mourns his lost friend, one of his best friends.

“Krel,” Zadra says softly after a moment. “There is still a battle. Mourning must wait.”

Krel pulls away from her and tries to swallow the lump in his throat, wiping his cheeks with a hand. He flinches when he feels this action smear Seamus’s blood across his face like perverse warpaint.

“Merlin dies,” he promises grimly.

Something in Zadra’s expression is very sad, but she nods anyway. Krel doesn’t let himself look at Seamus. He can’t let himself. He shoots into the air and joins the battle again. With the Red Knight eliminated, all they need to do now is knock out the trolls and deal with Merlin. Except Krel can’t _see_ Merlin, which is just klebtastic. Well. Trolls first. Without Seamus, they can’t de-brainwash any of them.

Krel forces himself not to think of Seamus.

He fights in a blur. Their numbers are down by at least ten, but Zadra’s right. Mourning must wait. Even despite his grief, he does his best not to injure the trolls too badly. They’re innocent in this as much as the rest of them are. He winds up beside Eli, whose face is stony. Krel knows he saw what happened. He’s relieved Eli is okay, although he’s bleeding from a long cut on his torso. Krel wishes Eli had armour. Not that armour did Seamus any good.

Finally, he spots people – reinforcements for them – appear at the edge of the canal and run in. Krel’s gaze focuses on Steve and Toby among them. He flies towards them, lands, and runs the rest of the way to hug Steve. Steve stumbles, clearly a bit surprised, but he wraps his arms around Krel.

“Hey, hey, you’re okay,” Steve says. Krel chokes on a sob at his words, an echo of Seamus’s last, a painful reminder. He feels another hand on his back – Aja, he realises, it’s Aja – but refuses to let go. “Krel?”

“It’s not going so well,” says Eli grimly. “Good news is, the Red Knight is dead.”

“Hey, that’s great news!” says Toby.

“What’s the bad news?” Jim asks warily.

“We lost Seamus,” Eli says quietly. Steve sucks in a sharp breath, and Krel feels his grip tighten.

“No,” Toby chokes out.

“Oh, little brother,” Aja murmurs. She wraps her arms around Steve and Krel to join the hug. Krel holds on just a few more moments before pushing away. They don’t have time. Steve reaches out to wipe Krel’s cheek and his dark glove comes away wet with Seamus’s blood.

“Let’s kick Merlin’s butt,” he says.

Krel nods and summons swords again. He takes a deep breath, then charges back into the battle. He tries to keep an eye on all his friends – like Seamus was doing for him – vowing in his mind not to let another one of them die. The Red Knight may be out of the way, but Merlin is still conspicuously missing from the action. It’s not a good sign, but Krel can’t get too distracted by it. Not while fighting. Not while trying to keep his friends and himself alive, trying to make sure Seamus’s sacrifice wasn’t in vain.

More and more of their allies start converging on the canal. At some point, Krel finds himself fighting beside Mort and Douxie. Both look worse for the wear but they’re _alive_ and that’s what matters. The expressions on their faces tell Krel they’ve seen Seamus. They know.

“Where is Merlin?” Mort bites out.

Krel shakes his head, mentally thanking Mort for not asking the question Krel knows he’s thinking. “He vanished. He hasn’t got the formstone, but that’s all I know.”

Mort curses under his breath. “Okay. We’ll deal with that later. How are you holding up?”

Krel presses his lips together and looks away.

“Yeah, I thought so,” sighs Mort.

“Uh, how about fight now, talk later?” grunts Douxie, holding back two trolls with magic and a strained grimace. Mort lunges forward to perform the de-brainwashing spell. The trolls look around in dizzy confusion before joining the fight themselves, this time on the good side.

It seems things are finally starting to turn in their favour. With reinforcements flooding in and trolls being de-brainwashed left and right, Merlin’s makeshift army is slowly being defeated. Unfortunately, Krel isn’t the only one to notice this.

“ENOUGH!” A paralysing shockwave of magic thunders through the canal. Krel finds himself frozen, trapped no matter how he struggles. He is lifted into the air despite every effort to stay planted on the ground.

“No!” Mort cries.

“_Krel_!” Steve and Aja both shriek.

Merlin appears out of nowhere in front of Krel, like he was invisible or – or something. Krel growls at him. His powers spark and fizzle angrily but he can’t break free of Merlin’s magic.

“I know the formstone is around here somewhere,” says Merlin. “You will give it to me.”

“I’d rather die,” Krel snarls. Aja lets out a desperate cry that might have been a “No!” but also might have been wordless. He feels almost bad, but he never expected to survive this, anyway. He wouldn’t tell Merlin. He wouldn’t give the formstone to Merlin.

Mort shoots into the air towards them, bronze magic shimmering on his hands. Merlin tosses him away with a flick of a hand, like nothing more than an annoyance, then freezes him much like he has Krel. Mort struggles uselessly, his magic sparking but unable to free him.

“Let him go!” he demands. “He’s just a kid!”

“He’s not even human,” scoffs Merlin. He returns his attention to Krel. “Now, will you cooperate?”

Krel just glares at him. Merlin’s face falls into a scowl, then – pain. He should have been expecting it, but a scream still rips from his throat as Merlin’s magic seems to rip through him and bring agony nearly as sharp as integrating with Gaylen’s core was. It’s short, but Krel is left panting and trembling within the grip of his enemy’s magic.

Toby lets out an angry shout and rockets towards them with his hammer. Merlin swats him away as well. Toby flies backwards into the bridge, hard enough to leave a dent, and he drops to the canal floor. Jim and Aaarrrgghh!!! swarm him immediately. Krel doesn’t have time to check if his friend is okay. Merlin’s magic jerks his attention back to him.

“Let’s try this again,” says Merlin. “The formstone. Now.”

“I said,” Krel grits out, “I’d rather _die_.”

The pain comes again, shooting through him like plumes of flame and burning, burning, and he’s back in the bookshop as fire engulfs him and the Red Knight – murderer, _murderer_ – looms over him with dark, angry eyes. Then it’s gone, but Krel can feel it linger in the shaking of his body and the aching in his core. Maybe he should agree – just say he agrees – and the second Merlin releases him, he’ll manifest a blade and go out the way Seamus did, a sword in his chest and the formstone safe. Maybe he should have done that a long time ago.

“I can see pain won’t persuade you,” says Merlin slowly. At first, Krel, dazed from the pain and vivid memories of the burning bookshop and of one of his best friends, laying dead just away from the chaos, doesn’t realise Merlin has done anything, but then he manages to see that Merlin has lifted his friends a few feet into the air. He can see Aja struggling furiously, Steve’s wide eyes on him, Toby death-glaring Merlin, Mort silently chanting what must be attempts at counter-spells, all the people he cares about here within the wizard’s grasp.

“No,” Krel whispers. “No, no, no.”

“Give me the formstone,” says Merlin, “or they all die a most painful and slow death.”

Aja grunts and contorts in the grip of the magic. “Don’t listen to him, Krel!”

“Don’t do it!” Steve yells. “We’re not worth the entire world!”

The magic flares. His friends scream despite themselves. Cold horror settles in Krel's core at their pain, because of Merlin, because of _Krel_. There’s no way Krel can win anymore. Somewhere along the line he messed up, and now he’s paying for it and, worse, his friends are paying for it.

“What’ll it be?” says Merlin.

Krel swallows. He looks around at the others, no longer screaming but shaking and angry. At Mort and Ikram and Nimue, mentors who have helped him so much this summer. At Zadra and Varvatos and Stuart, his family, not by birth but by love all the same. At Jim and Claire, his new friends, at Douxie and Eli, two of his closest friends, always there for him. At Toby, supportive, kind, one of the first and best friends Krel could ever ask for. At Steve, the brother he never had, someone he knows he can count on. At Aja, his big sister, who’s always been his protector and role model.

At Seamus. Dead, because Krel couldn’t protect himself. Dead to save _Krel_.

He can’t let another friend die.

“I’m sorry,” he says softly. “But you guys are my world.”

Merlin’s scowl twists into a smirk. He lowers both of them to the ground and releases Krel. Krel takes a deep breath.

“Don’t!” Toby cries. “Krel!”

And Krel almost does it, almost ends it all then and there, almost eliminates Merlin's chance to get the formstone - but he doesn't know what Merlin will do to his friends once he's gone, and he can't risk them getting killed. No one else he loves is getting killed.

“I’m sorry,” Krel whispers, before kneeling and resting his hands on the ground above the formstone. It responds instantly to his presence. He instinctively knows how to coax it to the surface, standing as he does and watching the shimmering white stone break through the cement and glint in the starlight. He rests his forehead on it. It’s warm. It feels like – coming home. Like curling up in his bed after a long day, like seeing his family again after being away from them.

Then he’s grabbed from behind and thrown away from the formstone. He skids on the concrete, shivering in the loss of the formstone's warmth, then pushes himself to his feet just as Merlin places his hands on the formstone. He feels sick.

“At last!” Merlin exclaims, eyes alight with malice and power. The formstone sparks and Krel can hear it screaming in his head, or something like that, as its power is drained and sapped by the wizard.

His friends are alive.

But Krel still made the wrong choice. He’s doomed the Earth, his home, and it’s all his fault. He falls to his knees and chokes on a new round of tears. He failed everyone. He should have eliminated the opportunity for Merlin when he had the chance, before the fight even started. No Krel, no access to the formstone. It’s too late for that now. It’s been too late. A bitter laugh escapes him. It sounds more like a sob. What has he done?

The others are dropped. Mort wastes no time charging towards Merlin, twin swords summoned, but with one hand Merlin is able to throw him backwards, sending him flying all the way into the side of the canal where he leaves a human-sized crater in the cement.

“Uncle Mort!” Douxie cries, running to Mort’s side as the older wizard pushes himself up and rubs his head. Krel shoots into the air. This is his fault, his mess, and he has to fix it, somehow. He dives towards Merlin, sword poised to drive it right through the monster’s head, when Merlin’s hand shoots out and Krel is enveloped in energy again. It’s not the same as Merlin’s. It’s not the formstone’s either. Or maybe it is, just perverted and changed by contact with Merlin’s darkness.

“I don’t need you anymore,” says Merlin.

“No!” Aja yells. “No, no, _no!_”

Merlin sends a piercing burst of sparking magic straight at Krel’s core – the power is sharply overwhelming for a few seconds, before Krel realises it doesn’t hurt. At all. Of course it doesn’t hurt. Tainted as it may have been before reaching his core, it’s still the formstone, Gaylen’s core’s origin point, and it recognises him as much as he recognises it.

“You think the formstone can hurt me?” he roars. Merlin’s eyes widen. “I am Gaylen’s heir! And this is my home! I won’t let you destroy it!”

He breaks free of Merlin’s hold and rockets towards him. Merlin is forced to dodge, hands leaving the formstone, which means he can’t keep draining it. Krel will count that as a win. He grabs Merlin by the arm and – shockingly – manages to throw him into the bridge. Merlin shoots back towards him, acid green focusers forming around his hands. Krel tries to dodge the attack, but one of the magical fireballs still hits him in the torso. His armour mostly protects him, but it hits in the worst possible place so it manages to bite through his undersuit at his hip. He grits his teeth against the all-too-familiar burning sting and moves to charge again, and Merlin shoots out a hand. The magical dagger flies past his shoulder. At first, Krel is relieved that Merlin missed. Then he hears the soft gasp from behind him, followed by Steve’s scream, “AJA!”

Krel spins around in cold horror. Aja has fallen to her knees clutching her left shoulder as Merlin’s dagger vanishes and leaves glowing blue blood to spill through her fingers. Steve kneels beside her, but he glances up at Krel and his eyes widen.

“Krel!” he shouts.

Krel has just enough time to start to turn around, but that isn’t enough time to prevent himself from being once more engulfed in Merlin’s magic. His own powers spark and flare to break him free, but it’s no use. He’s dragged through the air to Merlin, whose snarl is the deepest Krel has seen it yet.

“I’ll just have to kill you the hard way, then,” he says.

His hands wrap around Krel’s unprotected throat. Krel struggles, trying desperately to get air past the tight grip blocking it. He hears Aja’s strained voice call his name. Black spots start to dance in his vision. He doesn’t know if this will kill him, but he doesn’t want to find out.

Then, out of nowhere, a blast of golden magic slams into Merlin, knocking him away from Krel. Krel spirals into the ground; pain shoots up from his chest and head at the rough landing, but he forces himself to ignore it and sit up. Above him, Merlin and Morgana are locked in furious, magical combat.

Toby stumbles to Krel’s side and steadies him.

“Hey, man,” he says. “You good?”

“Fine,” Krel manages. “I'm sorry. This is my fault. I messed up.”

“You were just trying to protect us,” says Toby.

Steve also falls to his knees next to them. He runs a hand down Krel’s unburned cheek, brow pulled in concern, armour worryingly dented in places.

“Aja?” Krel asks.

“She’s okay.” Steve jerks his head back towards her. Krel glances back. Varvatos has helped her to her feet. She looks like she wants to run to him, but Varvatos won’t allow her. “I’m not good at healing spells but I knew a couple.”

Bitterly, Krel thinks that if Steve had been there instead of Krel – useless Krel – Seamus might have lived. Steve could have healed him, even if Krel completely failed. He doesn’t say it out loud.

“I’m sorry,” he says again, for giving Merlin the formstone, for letting Seamus die. “I messed up. I’m sorry.”

“Don’t apologise,” says Steve.

Krel glances up at the battle above them. Morgana is powerful, but Merlin has at least some of the formstone’s powers on his side. She isn’t going to win alone. She’s still doing better than they were, but she’s going to need help.

“Back into the fray?” says Toby, standing and offering Krel a hand. Krel takes it and pulls himself to his feet.

“You know it,” he says, materialising a sword and letting himself start to hover. It’s coming more and more naturally. He decides it’s a good thing, for now. He ignores the bitter voice in his mind that says he could have saved Seamus if he just knew how to use his powers better.

“Stay alive,” Steve says.

Krel smiles grimly at his friends. “Only if you guys do, too.”

He pulls himself back into the air as he stands and lets his powers wash over him once more. Whether he survives this or not, Merlin is going down. For Earth.

For Seamus.


	27. The Fate of the World: Part Two

Okay. Recap. The end of the world has officially begun for the fourth time, except this time feels like the most serious and apocalyptic yet. Krel just got literally tortured and then the rest of them got low-key tortured until Krel, like Steve predicted, gave up the formstone to save them. Oh, yeah, and one of Steve’s closest friends since childhood is dead.

Steve still can’t believe it. He hasn’t had time to – go see him – but he’s not sure he wants to anyway. He can’t right now, or he’ll crash and burn when he needs to be fighting. Something in Krel has changed – the way he lifts into the air and energy crackles off of him is scary. His eyes glow so bright they might as well be pure white, and the snarl on his face looks – wrong. Out of the corner of his eye, he sees Aja take a hesitant step back. This is Krel at the height of his new power, and it’s almost terrifying.

“Wizards!” yells Mort. “Keep freeing the trolls! Everyone else! Focus on bringing down Merlin!”

Krel doesn’t wait for any other permission before shooting towards Merlin to join the fight again. Mort follows him, looking every bit the ancient wizard he apparently is. Yeah. Steve’s still not over that. Toby and the rest of the Trollhunters charge into battle together. Toby quickly takes to the sky to join in the assault on Merlin.

Eli offers Steve a c-shaped hand. Steve smiles grimly at him and completes the symbol.

“Alright, Pepperbuddy,” he says. “You watch our backs, okay? Keep yourself safe.”

“You got it,” says Eli.

Steve lets out what he decides is a fierce war-cry and runs forward into the fray. The goal is technically to bring Merlin down, but, like, that’s kinda hard, because he’s encased himself in a barrier and, oh, he’s also _flying_. Only – what? – _five_ of them can fly, if he counted Toby, and he wasn’t completely sure he could count Toby. Everyone else is stuck on the ground trying to shoot him with serrator-guns or magic blasts or – in Ikram’s very angry case – throwing swords at him. There’s also enough mind-controlled trolls left that they’re having to fight them, too, which sucks.

Oh, the other bad news. Merlin is fighting back. It seems almost effortless for him. It probably is. People are getting thrown all around the canal. Steve himself keeps getting thrown into other people and cement. He is _not_ going to break his stupid leg again, so he’s trying his best to land safely. It’s harder than it looks. He can feel the bruises building up and by the way his shoulder throbs there’s _something_ wrong with it. It won’t matter soon, if they can’t stop Merlin and he destroys the world. Then they’ll just all be dead.

“Steve!” Logan’s familiar voice calls. Steve instinctually shifts so that Logan can fall into place beside him. He has a lot of questions, but most immediate would probably be, like, what the heck is Logan doing here? Followed rapidly by, where the heck did Logan get a bow and a bunch of arrows?

“Dude?” he manages incredulously, nodding to the bow.

“Found it in my basement,” says Logan. “Cool, huh? Check it.”

He aims and looses an arrow. It sails right past Merlin, missing by at least a yard. It’s immediately obvious that Logan has _no_ idea how to use a bow. Like, none whatsoever. Not even the briefest internet search.

“Okay,” says Logan sheepishly, “we’ll call it a work in progress. You seen Seamus?”

Steve’s heart lurches, and his focusers falter with his emotions. He forces himself to steady them and aim another blast at Merlin. He’s halfway decent at ranged magic, if only because he’d spent so long with ranged magic as his only option in case of a fight.

“Steve?”

“He’s gone,” Steve bites out. Logan’s grip on the bow goes slack and he stares at Steve with wide, horrified eyes. “Before I got here. I don’t know details, but... I can guess.”

It’s easy to guess, in the way Krel had hugged him when he arrived, trembling and sobbing, in the way Eli looked at Krel so worriedly and said, “We lost Seamus.” Wasn’t it Seamus that said no one would be sacrificing themselves? Yet Steve can’t even bring himself to be surprised.

Logan covers his face with a hand, then looks upward and drags his hand down. “I can guess too. He’s so – he _was_ so – it’s not fair.”

“No,” agrees Steve, staring up at the fight in the sky so he doesn’t let himself look over to where he knows his childhood friend’s body is laying. He can’t. Not now. The breakdown will have to wait until they – _if_ they survive. “It’s not.”

Mort throws out his hands to send a maintained pulse of magical energy at Merlin’s barrier. Steve rubs his hands together then does his best to mimic his mentor. Surely a double assault will work even better, right? Logan, face pulled carefully blank, does his best to hit Merlin with an arrow. He’s not very good at, well, aiming, and even the arrows that might come close are deflected by Merlin’s shield.

Strickler tries to dive-bomb Merlin, which Steve would have thought he’d’ve learned by now wouldn’t work; he’s ricocheted off the shield, as expected. He sees Jim, out of the corner of his eye, gesture to Aaarrrgghh!!!, who grabs him and throws him towards Merlin’s shield. Jim roars and tries to drive his sword into the magical barrier. No use. Even the Akiridion blaster shots fizzle and explode uselessly against the barrier.

“Does anyone want to tell me how the _kleb_ we’re supposed to win against a seemingly indestructible, flying wizard?” Zadra growls.

“Yeah, we don’t know,” says Steve.

“This is impossible!” Varvatos roars.

“We’ve done the impossible before,” Aja says. She fires several more rapid, useless shots at Merlin. She's either really good at hiding her pain or Steve did a better job healing her than he thought. “We can do it again. We have to.”

Steve wishes, desperately, that he had her confidence, but with the way the fight is going so far he can’t muster it. One of his best friends is _dead_. Worse still, he’s not the only one. Steve is grateful he doesn’t recognise any of the others that he can see – Akiridion cores and trolls turned to stone and humans, maybe wizards, maybe mundanes – but he knows the aftermath of this, if they survive it, is going to be a lot worse than any before.

“I have an idea,” says Aja.

“No, your ideas are never good ideas,” Steve shoots down immediately. She looks insulted. “It’s always something that might get you killed. Bad idea.”

“Well, I wasn’t asking for permission,” she says primly. “Varvatos! Throw me!”

Steve groans. “Oh, man.”

Unfortunately but also unsurprisingly, Varvatos listens. Steve doesn’t know why Aja thinks she’ll succeed where every single other person has failed, but he can concede that it’s a typical Aja move. Merlin barely glances at her before she’s thrown backwards into the bridge, hard enough to break off chunks of rock as she falls back into the canal. Steve’s breath catches when she doesn’t get up.

“AJA!” Krel screams.

Steve scrambles to her side and gently turns her over. She’s out like a light, but she’s still breathing and her form isn’t flickering away, so that’s a good sign. Steve seriously can’t deal with this right now.

“Aja?” he says, heart pounding as he waves a hand in front of her slack face. “Aja, hey, hey – seriously, don’t pull a Krel on me.”

She doesn’t wake up. Okay. Not good. Not good at all.

There’s a sharp cry from behind him – Steve turns, then catches sight of Krel caught in Merlin’s acid green magic. Mort lets out an angry shout and shoots forward, only to be batted away like an insect and skid painfully along the canal. He doesn’t shoot back into the air right away, which scares Steve more than he’d like to admit.

Toby gives a battle-cry and launches back into the air, towards Krel, now pulled behind Merlin’s barrier and struggling uselessly against the wizard’s grasp. Toby yelps as he, too, is caught in magic. Steve pushes himself to his feet, heart thudding in his chest. No. No, no, no.

“You’ve been a pain in my side for far too long,” Merlin snarls.

“Toby!” cries Jim, hand curled around his ribs like he’s injured. He probably is. Even if he wasn’t, there’s nothing he can do to save them.

“Krel!” Varvatos thunders, the panic in his voice only intensifying Steve’s own.

Steve’s fist curls tightly around Excalibur. No. He’s not losing more friends today. Not Toby, who despite how much of a buttsnack Steve used to be to him has stuck by his side through the thick and thin of this whole mess. Not Krel, his little brother in all but blood, who he’s already lost once and refuses to lose again. Steve is not losing anyone else, and especially not them, and especially not now.

He isn’t even conscious of what he’s doing, really. All he knows is he has to save his friends. He feels his feet lift off the ground, like he’s jumped but he hasn’t, and he needs to get to his friends, behind the barrier, struggling, faces twisted in what might be pain. Morgana’s magic finally manages to blast a hole in the barrier, just big enough.

“_Leave my friends ALONE_!” Steve roars. He rockets through the hole in the barrier, sword poised. Merlin only has a second to look surprised before Steve drives Excalibur into his neck. Steve himself is shocked as Merlin’s eyes fly wide and blood spills from his lips.

The green magic fails. Krel and Toby plummet first. A last, desperate shockwave of magic knocks Steve away from the wizard. He slams into the bridge and gasps at the ensuing sharp pain, then drops and manages to catch himself before hitting the ground and depositing himself on his knees. His arms tremble from the effort of flying – flying, holy crap, he just _flew_. He pushes himself up to sit on his calves and look around. Aja is awake, a hand to her head. That’s – one less person to worry about. A few feet away, he sees Krel standing, and in the other direction, Jim is helping Toby to his feet as well.

A hand appears in Steve’s line of vision. He glances towards its owner.

“Proud of you, son,” Dad says softly. Steve smiles and lets Dad help him stand. Any trolls who had still been mind-controlled seem to be free now, blinking around at the carnage in confusion. Steve still feels sick to look around and see so many people dead.

Mort limps back into view, supported by Morgana of all people, her face twisted in grim approval. Steve, almost afraid, makes his way to Merlin to retrieve his sword. The old wizard is definitely dead. Steve shakes blood off his sword. He swallows and backs away, back to his friends. Krel meets him with a hug.

“We did it,” Steve mumbles.

Toby laughs excitedly and joins in the hug. Merlin’s dead. They won. The cost of the victory hovers painfully in the back of Steve’s mind, the overwhelming relief pierced by the sharp sting of loss, but they _did it_.

“We won,” Douxie blurts in amazement. “It’s over.”

Krel pulls himself out of their group hug. He turns and frowns at the formstone, flickering weakly in stark contrast with its earlier bright glow. That… can’t be good. Steve meets Krel’s eyes. The younger boy shakes his head. “It’s not over yet.”

On cue, the ground rumbles beneath their feet. Eli stumbles and almost falls, but Varvatos steadies him with a big hand. Aja sways dangerously. Steve grips her shoulder to keep her from falling. Mort’s lips turn downward in a deep frown and he and Morgana exchange worried glances. The trolls nearest them murmur anxiously.

“Great,” says Toby. “We won, but we’re all going to die anyway!”

“We can evacuate to Akiridion-5,” says Aja. “We will help you restart on another planet.”

“That won’t work,” Mort says. “There’s too many people and too little time.”

“It is the only solution we have,” Zadra says. “We can save Arcadia, and as many others as we can.”

Krel has that expression again, the frown and furrowed brows that tell Steve he’s not going to like whatever it is his little brother is about to say.

“I have an idea,” Krel says. Yep, he was right. Steve already doesn’t like it. He doesn’t even have to hear the idea to know he doesn’t like it. Bad ideas run in the Tarron family.

Krel walks over to the formstone and lays all four hands on it. His face turns sad. They all know the formstone is dying, but maybe Krel can feel it the worst of all of them. Mort’s frown deepens further, then his eyes widen and he rushes forward and turns Krel around, hands gripping his shoulders. Morgana hovers forward, her own lips curled into a frown. If even Morgana’s worried, it – can’t be good.

“Krel, no.” There’s a note of terror in Mort’s voice that Steve doesn’t understand. It scares him anyway. “It’s too dangerous. This could – this _will_ kill you.”

“What?” Aja demands. “Krel, what is he talking about?”

Judging by the way Krel refuses to look at any of them, he knew his idea would probably kill him. Steve wonders if Krel has been anticipating this since he gave up the formstone. The thought makes him feel cold, despite the warm summer air, and he suppresses a full-body shiver to take a hesitant step towards Krel.

“If I give my energy to the formstone, it might fix it just enough that the Earth won’t be destroyed,” Krel says. “It’s the only way.”

“But at the cost of your _life_?” Toby cries. He shakes his head, eyes shining with unshed tears. “No – no, that’s not – that’s not okay.”

“Krel, we were worth the world to you,” says Douxie. Krel flinches. “You’re worth the world to us. Don’t.”

“We’re all going to die anyway if I don’t do this!” Krel exclaims. “This is my fault. I chose you guys over the world – and I’d do it again – but now I have to fix it.”

The worst part is that he’s right. They are all going to die anyway. Steve desperately tries to think of another solution, one that doesn’t involve losing Krel, for real and for good this time. His mind is coming up heart-achingly blank.

Krel walks over to them. He meets each of their eyes in turn, pleading for them to understand. Toby pulls Krel into a hug.

“You weren’t supposed to die, man,” he manages.

“I know,” Krel mumbles. “I’m sorry.”

Aja practically tackles Krel next, sobbing unabashedly. Her fingers curl on the metal of his armour and she struggles for a few moments to form any words.

“I just got you _back_,” she finally chokes out.

“I love you, Aja,” he says. “Keep being extraordinary.”

Aja lets out a weak, broken noise and holds her brother tighter before pushing away and wiping her eyes, breath hitching through her tears. Steve grabs Krel by the shoulders. Krel gives him a soft, sad smile; tears have already streaked down his cheeks, through blue and red blood staining his skin, tangible evidence of the trauma they’ve all been through. Steve tries to force the words to come out, but he doesn’t know what to say.

“It’s okay,” Krel whispers.

“It’s not,” Steve says desperately. “You can’t do this.”

Krel’s smile falters. “There’s no other choice.”

And Steve has never been the plan guy, he’ll never _be_ the plan guy, but he’s always been good at working on instinct. It only takes a split-second to come up with something and finally blurt, “What if there was?”

Krel’s smile completely falls and his brow furrows. “What do you mean?”

“What if – what if I helped?” he suggests. It’s only a half-formed thought at best. It might not even be possible, but a half-formed thought is better than losing Krel, too. “Maybe if there’s two of us, we’ll both live.”

“Or we could both die.” Krel shakes his head. “No. Too risky.”

Toby’s face morphs into grave determination. “What about three? We’re in this together. From the start.”

“Together,” Steve echoes. “We’ve faced down knights and near-death experiences all summer. This isn’t any different.”

Krel glances between them. Steve tries to convey his resolve when he meets his little brother’s glowing eyes, tries to tell him without speaking that no matter what happens, he’s not leaving him to die again. They’re in this together, all three of them, no matter what he tries to say. He’s not alone. _They’re_ not alone. They have each other, and that’s _going_ to be good enough. It has to be.

“Alright,” Krel says finally, softly, smiling sadly despite himself. “The three of us.”

They follow Krel back to the formstone. Another quake shakes the canal, stronger this time. Krel almost falls, so Steve reaches out to stabilise him. They need to work fast. Krel lays his hands on the formstone again. Steve puts a hand on his shoulder; Toby mimics him on the other side. Krel takes a deep breath, then the glow around his form grows slowly brighter. Steve almost yelps and lets go when the glow starts to spread up his own arm, morphing from white to the gold of his aura. A brief glance at Toby shows the same thing happening to him. It isn’t painful. Steve can feel his energy draining, but it’s more like the end of the day after an all-nighter, when wakefulness is starting to fade just out of reach, slowly but surely. He has to close his eyes, because the glow is too bright.

Finally, after what may have been hours or may have been minutes, Krel lets go and stumbles backwards. Steve catches him out of pure instinct, because his legs are jelly and he’s dizzy and blinking bright lights out of his blurring vision.

“We did it,” Krel breathes.

They did it. They stopped the end of the world. Steve only has the energy to let out a brief, weak sound of agreement before the world goes dark around him and he succumbs to unconsciousness.

The first thing to filter back into Steve’s awareness is the faint beeping of hospital equipment. The first thing he thinks is that it’s kind of sad he knows what hospital equipment sounds like without even considering it.

He shifts ever so slightly, wriggling his fingers and toes and hesitantly tensing muscles. No pain follows. Well. That’s a good sign, right? He forces his eyes open and pulls himself into a sitting position. There’s a mechanical noise as the hospital bed shifts, and Steve looks over to see Dad smiling at him, eyes shining with what might be unshed tears.

“Hey, son,” he says softly.

“Hey, Dad,” Steve says. He glances around the room. There are two other beds. The closest to him holds a still sleeping Krel, and the next holds a just-barely-waking-up Toby. Jim – human Jim, how did _that_ happen? – sits by Toby’s bed, curled over asleep with half his body on the mattress. Claire rests her arms and head on his back, also asleep. Aja is asleep in a chair between Steve and Krel’s beds. Douxie is on the floor, back against Krel’s bed and also out like a light. Eli is sprawled out on the floor with a jacket folded under his head.

“About time you woke up,” says Dad. “We’ve all been worried sick.”

“I’m alright,” says Steve. “Just tired.”

“I’m just glad you’re alive.” Dad raises a hand to wipe his cheek. “Your mom’s gonna be mad she missed you waking up. She’s helping with repairs. We’ve been taking turns.”

“We did it?” Steve asks, even though it’s obvious the Earth is still here. “It worked?”

“You did it,” Dad confirms. “Mort said the form-thingy was all back to the way it should be. And all three of you are going to be just fine.”

Toby, across the room, carefully sits up and stretches his arms. He glances over at Steve, eyes hesitating briefly on Krel, who has only now begun to stir. It only takes a second before he shoots into a sitting position and looks around in panic. When he realises he’s in the hospital and the rest of them are all there, he relaxes.

“We survived?” he says in disbelief, before laughing. “We survived!”

His exclamation wakes the others. Aja is quick to grab her brother in a tight hug, speaking rapidly to him in what Steve realises must be their native language. Eli leaps onto Steve’s bed and hugs him, knocking the breath out of him with the suddenness.

“You’re awake!” he exclaims. “Thank goodness!”

Steve chuckles and lets his hands rest on his friend’s back. “Good to see you, too, Pepperbuddy.”

Dad stands and smiles at them. “I’ll leave you kids alone to catch up. Better go find everyone else, tell ‘em you’re up.”

He leaves the room. Eli sits at the edge of Steve’s bed. Aja returns to her chair after helping Krel adjust his hospital bed so he can sit more comfortably. Douxie relocates to sit on Krel’s bed. The Trollhunters seem to have also finished exchanging hugs, and Jim and Claire have returned to their seats by Toby’s bed. It seems almost poetic to have all of them together – well, not that Steve knows much about poetry, but he thinks that’s right. The Trollhunters, the Creepslayerz, the Akiridions, and – well, Douxie, who’s one of them now. Steve probably falls under a category with him. Wizards, he guesses.

“I’m so glad you’re okay,” says Jim. This is, probably, the wrong thing to say. Krel’s face falls, expression crumpling as he stares at his hands.

“Most of us,” he murmurs.

Steve sucks in a breath and closes his eyes. Yeah. _Most_ of them. Seamus’s absence is starkly evident, too evident. He should be here, probably sitting next to Krel on his bed, berating all of them for being stupid. It isn’t fair. Steve’s heart aches, a too-familiar sharp pain he’s learned to associate with grief and loss and mourning.

“I still can’t believe…” Claire trails off and shakes her head.

“He saved my life,” Krel says quietly. “He – he saved my life, and it got him–”

He can’t complete his sentence. Steve doesn’t blame him. The idea of saying it out loud feels – wrong. Steve had expected that was how it happened, honestly, even if this was his first confirmation of it. Seamus wasn’t stupid. He could keep himself alive if he wasn’t trying to protect someone else, but like all the rest of them, self-preservation always flew out the window when it came to his friends.

“He was a hero,” says Toby. “A real hero.”

“I – he’s really gone.” Krel blinks rapidly as if to force back tears. “It doesn’t feel real.”

“He won’t be forgotten,” says Steve. “He helped save the world. We’ll make sure that’s not forgotten. That’s what you do for your friends.”

Krel nods and wipes his cheek with a hand. “Yeah.”

Aja reaches over to grab one of her brother’s hands and squeeze it comfortingly. Krel gives her a small, sad smile. Steve gets it. It’s going to be a long time before they recover from this – maybe never. Steve kind of thinks never is more accurate. Or maybe they’ll recover, but… things are never going to be the same again. 

“So what now?” says Jim hesitantly. “It’s over. It’s actually all over.”

“I almost hate to say this,” says Toby, “but, _man_, am I looking forward to school.”

“Do I even want to know when school is starting?” Steve asks warily.

“About a week from now,” says Douxie. “Same for the Academy. Although Uncle Mort’s not sure if I’m going back there this year or coming to your school. But either way.”

Aja bites her lip and sighs.

“I know this is your home,” she says to Krel.

He grabs two of her hands. “And I know Akiridion-5 is yours. I’ll try to visit. And call more often. No more – what is the saying? – no more keeping you away from the looping.”

“You going back, too?” Steve asks Eli.

“Well, I did tell my mom I’d be there all year,” says Eli. “And I don’t _really_ want to go back to school just yet.”

“Fair,” Steve says. He looks between him and Aja. “I’ll visit, too. If – uh, that’s okay.”

Aja smiles at him. “You’re welcome on Akiridion-5, Steve. You _all_ are. I’m sorry for – kicking you out.”

Krel stares at her in disbelief – well, apparently he hadn’t known the details of that – and shakes his head. Toby chuckles at his expression, then turns to Jim.

“And what about you guys?” he asks hesitantly.

“I don’t know where we’d find another Heartstone,” says Jim. “We’ll have to find something, but - something here in Arcadia. We’ve already started rebuilding Trollmarket, but – it’ll take a while.”

“You know,” says Krel slowly, “I might be able to figure something out.”

Steve leans back against his bed and closes his eyes. Yeah. Things will never be the same again. It’s going to be a long recovery for all of them, and a hard one at that, but he thinks they’ll manage. Together.

They’re discharged from the hospital and sent home the next day. Mom can’t seem to stop hugging him, which Steve is actually fine with. It’s freeing to be home and not worry about being attacked at any time.

Aja and Eli return to Akiridion-5 with Varvatos and Zadra a couple of days after they’re released. Aja seems reluctant to leave, but Krel promises to call her if there’s any trouble and Mort promises to make sure he actually does. Steve really hopes there isn’t more trouble.

Krel ends up inviting Mort, Douxie and Archie, still homeless after the attack on the shop, to stay with him. Steve has a feeling that even after the shop gets rebuilt, they won’t move out. He’s pretty sure Krel was lonely by himself with the Blanks, and Mort’s never met a kid he can’t parent. It’s good for Krel. Steve’s glad, although there’s a part of him that thinks it would have been fun if Krel had moved in with him, instead.

Seamus’s funeral is that weekend. It’s – hard. It hadn’t felt real until the funeral, until he’s watching his friend get lowered into the ground and realising that Seamus really is gone forever. It hurts. Krel is taking it just as hard as he is, if not more, and he must apologise to Mrs. Johnson at least a hundred times before she gives up trying to get a word in and just hugs him instead.

It’s almost refreshing to walk back onto campus the first day of school. All the buildings have been given blackout curtains for the windows in order to make them troll-friendly if needed. Strickler is back to teaching. Steve thinks it’s going to take some getting used to, seeing a teacher he’s known for a while now in front of the class as a troll. It’s also pretty cool. Douxie ended up staying at the Academy (according to Krel, the main argument had been his boyfriend and also that it was his senior year), but everyone else is back. Well. Almost everyone.

Steve runs into Toby first when he gets to school.

“No Jim?” he asks.

“He’s running late, told me to come ahead and tell Coach,” Toby says. “He’s lucky we have Coach first.”

“Jim? Running late?”

“I hope you like fancy home-made lunches, because now that Jim can cook human food in human form again he’s decided he’s making lunch for _all of us_.”

“That’s dedication,” Steve says after a moment. He laughs. “Well, I bet Krel’s early.”

“Probably,” Toby agrees. Sure enough, as they walk into the courtyard, they can see Krel already there, standing at what used to be Seamus’s locker but has now been turned into a memorial of sorts. Krel glances back at them as they reach him, then holds up a small hologram: a static, 3D image of the three of them and Mort and Douxie and Seamus, something Steve recognises from photos taken earlier in the summer before everything got – well – crazier than it already was.

“I was going to just print out the photograph, but I thought this would be better,” Krel says. He gently places the hologram inside Seamus’s locker, the faint glow of it lighting up the metal walls.

“He’d love it,” Steve says.

Krel smiles, eyes still sad in the way Steve expects all of theirs will be for a while to come. He closes the locker. Some of the artsy students had gotten together to paint on the front, a colourful, vividly alive portrait of Seamus, but Steve can recognise Krel’s handwriting spelling out “HERO” in large letters across the top. Akiridion letters line the bottom as well, and Steve expects they mean the same thing. Krel’s hand traces down the side of the image before he turns back to them.

“Here’s to a boring year,” he says.

“You know it will never be boring for us,” Toby points out.

“Well, one can hope,” Krel says.

Steve just laughs, and the three of them begin walking towards gym, the first class of the day and probably the easiest. He glances back, one last time, at Seamus’s locker and the bright, smiling image on it. Yes. Things are different now. They’ve all changed over this summer, over this _year_. Steve’s changed. A lot. So things will be different this year, but in some ways – he hopes they’re going to be better. They’ve grown and learned, and despite everything they’re stronger for it. They’re going to be okay.

He finally brings his attention forward again and slings an arm around each of his friends’ shoulders. “To a _good_ year."


End file.
